


A Perfect Arrangement

by rhincoln



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst, Best Friends, Drunken Shenanigans, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Friends With Benefits, Grinding, Homophobia, Idiots in Love, Internalized Homophobia, Jealousy, M/M, Masturbation, Mutual Masturbation, Mutual Pining, Pining, Porn, Public Display of Affection, Sex Tapes, Sharing a Bed, Sickfic, rhink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-08-07 10:34:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 93,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7711696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhincoln/pseuds/rhincoln
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In order to win the body and soul of Miss Perfect, a girl they think they’re obsessed with, Rhett and Link figure they first have to win the keys to the coolest place on campus - something that is offered to them out of the blue, with only a single catch: only couples could get to move into the lush apartment. Rhett and Link would do anything for the space, for the girls - even pretend that they’re romantically involved. As true best friends, together they start off on the ambitious quest for love. </p><p>What happens is its own story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> come off anon (or don't, i respect it)
> 
> — this is for you, anyways, always
> 
> / big thanks to [lauren](http://pringlesaremydivision.tumblr.com) for the beta! make sure to check her out on tumblr as well as read some of her lovely writing if you haven't!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cover art by [Katie](http://allthedevilishthingswedo.tumblr.com).

****

Rhett needed to see her. As soon as possible.

****

It felt like the class before lunch always took the longest to end. Link would undoubtedly agree. After all, there was little they failed to agree upon, and when they did disagree on something, it was like an uncomfortable, painful pit opened in Rhett’s guts, itching until he spoke to Link and pacified it.

****

But anyway, Link—thinking about Link wasn’t what was important here. Seeing  _ her _ was.

****

Rhett cut the line at the cafeteria seamlessly, easily sliding in front of a guy who seemed to be stoned off his mind. Rhett grabbed a plastic tray and slapped it onto the metal countertop in front of the glass-encased buffet, grabbed a plate and some utensils, and then either helped himself to food or lifted the tray up to let the lunch ladies pile it onto his plate. All of this was done at breakneck speed; there was no time to waste when one had a chance to go out, sit down next to Link, and share with him the experience of gazing upon the most beautiful girl on campus. 

****

Rhett made it out the door of the cafeteria to the patio, very pleased with his choice of food, especially since he was forced to choose so quickly. Making his way over to the table they’d sat at last fall, when the weather was still warm enough for them to be sitting outside, he noticed that Link was already there. Rhett could only see the back of him, his shoulders squared as he sat in front of his food, the corner of an open book sticking over the edge of the table, the only thing not obscured by Link’s broad shoulders and the shirt that hung off them.

****

Figures Link would already be there, Rhett thought. The guy was meticulous. He’d probably eaten and done a chapter’s reading by the time Rhett hauled his butt over to the patio. What never went hand in hand with Link’s meticulousness was his clumsiness, which was exactly what manifested itself when Rhett approached him from behind and sat next to him with a soft “Hey.”

****

Link’s fingers bumped into his cup, making coffee slosh inside it and spill down the side a little. Link immediately took a paper towel and wrapped it around the side of the cup.

****

“H-ey,” Link greeted, a small stutter to his voice. There was a weariness to him, his eyes tired and his smile slow to come, but he looked as good as he always did. His hair was ruffled, pushed up and to some it may have looked carelessly messy, but Rhett knew that it was a deliberate sort of messiness. He wore a white, iron-pressed t-shirt, a dark-red button up which hung unbuttoned around it, and jeans which were tight but only up to under his butt, after which they flared, roomy to say at the least.

****

Rhett, who had dressed in much the same fashion, set his own tray next to Link’s and settled down, noting that the bench they sat on seemed to be smaller than it had been in autumn. Even if the bench had been two inches long, there was no way they would not be sitting next to one another—this arrangement was due to the fact that neither of them wanted to twist or crane their necks and be painfully obvious in their creeping on Miss Perfect, which was what they dubbed the object of their affections.

Rhett had to sit in a way that his entire side was pressed up against Link’s own, their hands bumping occasionally under or on top of the table. It didn’t happen often and luckily, they had no problem eating, because Rhett ate with his right and Link picked his food or leafed through his books with his left hand. This was something Rhett knew not to acknowledge out loud, since Link was still convinced that he was right-handed, even when his actions suggested otherwise.

****

And Rhett was still convinced he was here to see Miss Perfect, so he dialled back to that. To be fair, it would have been easier if she were actually there. Not seeing her in her usual spot at the table to their right, Rhett stuck his neck out and looked around, taking his surroundings in like a hawk. In his peripheral vision, he saw Link raise his gaze from this textbook. Rhett caught the unmistakable sound of a grin in his voice when he spoke.

****

“She ain’t here, man,” Link said, then returned his gaze back to his book when Rhett looked down at him.

****

“Huh,” Rhett hummed, turning to his food. He picked up his piece of pepperoni pizza and bit into it. Still looking around, he really hoped that she would show up. They hadn’t seen her all winter, because she never seemed to hang around inside the cafeteria, but they noticed that she liked eating out on the sunny patio. They had been lucky enough to have accidentally sat behind her one day, and when they noticed that the table she chose then became her regular one, the one where they had a clear view of her became  _ their _ regular one. Seeing her became the bright spot of their days, and they sat close together and talked amongst themselves, chancing covert glances at her from time to time, using their full free hour to look at her, sometimes sitting together even after she’d gone. This changed rapidly with the coming of winter. Unable to spot Miss Perfect in the cafeteria left them with no excuse to hang around there for longer that was needed for them to eat their food, and Rhett missed it. He lay all his hopes in her to bless him with her reappearance, to let him and Link secretly gawk at her and go on from talking about her to talking about anything that troubled them or made them happy.

****

“Maybe she doesn’t know that the patio’s opened,” Rhett mumbled, looking over at Link.

****

Link slid his gaze from his book over to his food. Scooping up a forkful of peas, he spoke, “Maybe.”

****

“Or maybe she dropped out,” Rhett said, mouth full.

****

Link huffed out a laugh, putting his fork down as he looked at Rhett with a smile. “I doubt that since I saw her in the hall between English and Chem. You said you saw her yesterday, man.”

****

Rhett nodded. “So I guess now we wait.”

****

“Yep,” Link said curtly, and turned back to his book.

****

Rhett regarded him for a moment, chewing his pizza slowly. He couldn’t turn a blind eye to the way Link’s brow furrowed and his mouth pulled down in a slight frown, how genuinely distressed he looked.

****

“What?” Link snapped, looking up at him.

****

Rhett scrambled to look away. “What what?” he muttered into his chin, looking down at his plate.

****

He could  _ hear _ Link roll his eyes. “Why you starin’ at me?”

****

Rhett turned to Link, now slightly angry himself. “Why’re you so tempestuous about it?” he snapped, forgetting to deny the alleged  _ staring. He wasn’t staring, he was merely looking, being concerned for his best friend. Was he not allowed to be concerned? _

****

Link first grinned, and it was Rhett’s turn to roll his eyes—he knew exactly what he’d said and how Link would react. Rhett looked away when Link laughed. “Tempestuous?” Link asked, faking his best awed voice, one which he also used when he did mocking impressions of the girls hitting on Rhett, all to rile him up. “Someone’s been doing their reading for English.”

****

Rhett’s gaze snapped back over to him, and as intimidating as Rhett was sure he looked, it didn’t seem to faze Link - he smiled in the face of it.

****

“Something you can’t seem to get enough of,” Rhett said huffily, casting a pointed look down to Link’s textbook. 

****

Link covered his book with a protective arm, leaning on it and away from Rhett. “That’s calc, for your information,” he said, that argumentative tone Rhett knew all too well in his voice. Rhett didn’t want to start or continue anything, but he also really wanted Link to know that he wouldn’t hesitate to dead-move him there, in front of all these people.

****

Rhett took a deep breath and decided to let it all go. He turned back to his food, and was just about to keep eating when he felt Link bump his shoulder lightly with a knuckle, as if meekly knocking on him. “Hey,” Link said, and Rhett looked up at him. “Sorry I’m so… on edge. It’s just that second semester is hitting harder than I thought it would.”

****

Rhett nodded, though he didn’t get it. “You study way too much, man.”

****

“And you study way too little,” Link immediately retorted, but Rhett didn’t let it annoy him—Link was right, not in what he’d said, but in parroting the way Rhett had voiced his judgement of the time Link spent studying.

****

“You know that I know what I know,” Rhett said, not about to start that debate again.

****

“Right, right,” Link muttered, turning to his food, a displeased look on his face.

****

“I didn’t mean to tell you how much time you are allowed to be spending with your face in a book,” Rhett offered. It was just that—Link was always there, like he’d been in what seemed like Rhett’s entire life, only he seemed to be dedicating less and less attention to Rhett as time passed. And Rhett missed him. He feared that if he didn’t find a way to bridge the gap that had opened between them as they grew up, the next time Link found a girlfriend would be the last time they spoke.

****

“Thanks,” Link said sardonically, and Rhett smiled a little. Not only did he not want to fight, he decided that he would try to make Link feel better.

****

“Here’s something for you to study,” Rhett said, using both hands to open his cup of vanilla pudding. Link looked at him curiously, and Rhett revelled in the attention, even if he was about to do something stupid. It never seemed to be a risk, when he was trying to make Link laugh, whether Link would laugh. Whatever Rhett did with this intention, Link seemed to find funny. 

****

Before proceeding with anything else, Rhett reached over Link’s tray to close Link’s book, making Link shake his head, though Rhett could see that it was with fondness that he did it.

Then, Rhett used his spoon to scoop some of the pudding out, and dropped a dollop of it onto what was left of his slice of pizza. “We’re gonna have a taste test. All you need is some pizza, and some vanilla—“

****

“Eugh,” Link scrunched his face up, looking away as if the sight itself disagreed with him. But he laughed, and that was all that Rhett needed. Tentatively, Link looked back at Rhett, and then the pizza, over which Rhett was now spreading the pudding, not sparing a single inch in his pursuit.

****

“I think I’m gonna gag,” Link said, giggling.

****

“Brother, you ain’t even the one eating it,” Rhett said, looking up at him with a smile. They looked at each amusedly other over the disgraced slice of pizza for a moment, before Rhett brought it up unceremoniously and took a big bite.

****

“Oh my gosh,” Link whispered as he watched it unfold, “gross.”

****

It was vile. After a considerable amount of chewing, Rhett swallowed his bite, and immediately coughed, feeling as if he was going to heave. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Link doubled over in laughter, and no matter how pleased Rhett was because of that, his mouth was still violently protesting against it. A sound that seemed to be half-cough, half-burp escaped his lips, and Link’s laughter was even louder, making Rhett grin.

****

Rhett was ecstatic that Link seemed to find it funny, but when Link didn’t stop giggling for a while—looking away and calming down only to look at Rhett again and explode in giggles—Rhett quirked an amused brow.

****

Tears pooled in Link’s smiling eyes, and Rhett was pleased with the outcome of his stunt, if a bit confused at Link’s over-the-top reaction.

****

“You should have seen her face,” Link wheezed, making Rhett’s smug expression fall away immediately. He frantically craned his neck to look around, and saw that Miss Perfect was perfectly perched on her own bench, a little to their right, in front of them. Because of the way she was sitting, Rhett could see only the back of her perfect head and the edge of her perfect face, and it looked as if that face was about to start laughing at what it had witnessed, just like Link.

****

Rhett turned back to Link, wide-eyed. His cheeks reddened at the realisation that Miss Perfect now probably saw him as an ill-mannered pig, and Rhett—well, it made Rhett laugh a little too. He didn’t really care. If he were to be honest, he never actually saw his future self having any sort of actual relationship with her, even if he’d woven all sorts of stories about it to Link. And speaking of Link, he was still laughing. Link had such a nice laugh. 

****

“Also,” Link took a deep breath, trying to make the laughter go away, his voice shaking Rhett out of the slightest trance. And yes, maybe Rhett had caught himself staring, just now. “That’s not vanilla pudding.” 

****

“What?” Rhett breathed, scrambling to take the half-empty pudding cup. Now that he thought of it, he realised it didn't taste quite like it should have, but he attributed the weird taste to the added ketchup and cheese.  _ “Tapioca?” _ he read the thin plastic lid, grimacing. “You knew and didn’t warn me?”

****

Link looked at him with a smile, raising an eyebrow as if to ask,  _ “You really think I would have ruined  _ this?”

****

It made Rhett smile, and he set the pudding cup down when he suddenly remembered just why they’d agreed to meet there. He looked in front of himself, turning away from Link only slightly so that he could look at Miss Perfect.

****

“I bet she smells like vanilla,” Link whispered, sounding as if he were really close to Rhett. Rhett gulped and shook his head, before turning to look at Link. Probably seeing just how close he’d gotten, Link immediately backed away a little.

****

“Maybe you think it’s vanilla,” Rhett began wisely, “and then it turns out that it’s tapioca.”

****

Link’s eyes narrowed above a small, confused smile. “I don’t know what that means, but it sounds mean.”

****

“It’s not mean,” Rhett said defensively, “I’m just saying. Maybe you’re building her up to be more than she is,” Rhett said, keeping himself out of it—because yes, it did sound mean. But Rhett thought it could also be true. And Link didn’t deserve to be deceived. Link was a great guy.

****

Link shook his head and turned to look ahead at Miss Perfect.

****

_ “You’re _ tapioca,” he muttered to Rhett under his breath.

****

Rhett frowned. What did that mean? Why did he have to be the gross one?

****

Rhett turned to look at Miss Perfect as well, narrowing his eyes at her, trying to scrounge up what it was, besides her flawless looks, that had Link—and by extension, of course, Rhett—so smitten with her.

****

Maybe it was the way she flicked her long, wavy hair over her shoulder or the way she smiled at the stranger who approached. Rhett froze—it suddenly dawned on him that  _ someone had approached her, _ and he didn’t know if it was a stranger, he had nothing to base this opinion on besides the fact that the strange girl approached Miss Perfect timidly. But maybe she did so because she was about to disclose some disturbing news—of the two creeps who had been ogling her ever since she sat down.

****

Rhett feared the Miss Perfect had found a friend, someone who had arranged to meet her there and would undoubtedly alert her to the presence of those two creeps who sat behind her and stared at her—which was flawed thinking on several levels, but Rhett wasn’t any less scared, even if he knew this.

****

Rhett glanced at Link, who was fixated on the sight in front of them, barely breathing, as far as Rhett could tell. Rhett turned his eyes back to what felt like a train wreck waiting to happen, and gulped. The girl was asking something of Miss Perfect in a hushed tone, and Miss Perfect seemed to be listening raptly, on her face a patient, now visibly-forced smile. Rhett figured that she was about to kill them.

****

His heart jammed in his throat when, after shaking her head and laughing sweetly, Miss Perfect looked over her shoulder and pointed at them. Catching her eye, Rhett barely had time to school his expression into something that didn’t scream  _ scared shitless! _ But before he could, she was turning back to her conversational partner, after which the other girl followed the line of her finger and looked straight at the two of them.

****

_ “Alright, thanks,”  _ Rhett could make out the girl saying to Miss Perfect, and he scrambled to grip Link’s hand on the table when he noticed that the girl in the red shirt and white pants had a clipboard in hand and the unmistakable badge of an RA on her chest. It couldn’t be that Miss Perfect had noticed and busted them, not  _ this _ early in the semester—

****

“Gedoff,” Link muttered, twisting his hand out of Rhett’s grasp. Rhett took a quick look at Link and saw him baring his teeth in a nervous smile as he looked around, as if checking to see if anyone was looking at Rhett embarrassing him. The RA gave Miss Perfect one final smile and turned toward them, and Rhett could feel Link’s hand relax in his own. Link may have even squeezed back slightly, undoubtedly terrified when they saw the RA walking over to their table. 

****

“Dude, what do we do?!” Link asked through gritted teeth, scooting closer to Rhett.

****

Rhett briefly considered fleeing, but a bigger part of him felt like they had to face it head-on. And there was little they couldn’t fight, he thought, when they were together. 

****

Now, attention or no attention, girlfriends or no girlfriends, bickering or bliss—wherever they were and however they felt, Rhett and Link were always the best of friends. More than a dozen years of knowing someone didn’t count for nothing, and maybe it took Rhett a crisis like this to realise it. His mundane fears of them growing apart looked like nothing when they were truly united, even if it was that they were united while facing a doubtlessly fierce repercussion.

****

Rhett and Link were the kind of friends who would do anything for each other. Quite literally  _ anything _ , up to and including dying for each other. 

****

Not that Rhett felt like this situation would result in anything as dramatic as death or the sacrifice of one’s life for the other, but still, Rhett’s thoughts seemed to wander easily when it came to Link. They would not only die for each other, they were the kind of friends who didn’t see a point in living without the other. They’d made, and continued to make, great plans for the future together, not even seeing a future without the other. Even if sometimes they’d drift apart, they loved each other immensely. 

****

The girl greeted them and sat at their table, and Link seemed to lead the conversation confusedly as Rhett looked through her dazedly, deep in thought. He caught onto some of her words, and Link didn’t seem to understand what she meant or wanted, but Rhett knew. Her smile didn’t come as easily as when she’d spoken to Miss Perfect, and her face scrunched up funnily when she uttered something akin to, “We don’t discriminate.”

****

Rhett loved Link. Rhett was, also, the kind of guy who thought that there was no way besides platonic for two guys to love each other. And that was fine. This opinion did not diminish the greatness of any experiences he had shared with Link. 

****

Well. Not terribly. 

****

They could huddle together on a bench, share a bed, lie one on top of the other in their boxers, door of their dorm slightly ajar, without anyone, even themselves, getting the idea that they might’ve been more than friends. 

****

Never, even when they cuddled or coddled each other, when they cracked inside jokes tiresome to any outsider and went absolutely crazy with laughter, not when they willingly abandoned anyone or anything without hesitation just to go seek the other. Not ever. 

****

Until that day. 

****

Because, yes, they were two male friends and yes, it may have been North Carolina, but it was not Buies Creek anymore. It was not ‘85 or ‘93 or even ‘96 anymore. The new year of ‘97 had been there for a while, the second semester of their freshman year as fresh as the early-spring air around them.

****

It’s the first time that year that it was warm enough for them to sit outside. Well, it might not have looked like they were warm with the way they huddled together on the bench, but it was the first time that the patio was open that year, and they were one of the few who had decided to brave the brisk air. And it was for one, completely straight, reason only. 

****

The chance of catching a glimpse of Miss Perfect. 

****

They had agreed that they’d sit side by side so they both have a direct view of her and her Perfect white boots. 

****

Rhett hadn’t sat next to Link on the bench so he could be looking at him.

****

But someone apparently thought he had.

****

After Link uttered his third  _ “What?” _ —each consecutive one waning in volume and level of confusion, as it occurred to him what the girl was offering—Rhett decided to take matter into his own hands. 

****

“What?” Rhett asked.

****

Link squirmed uncomfortably beside Rhett, but didn’t try to worm his hand out of Rhett’s grasp. He may have come to the conclusion that they would fare better as gay—as if anyone did, in nearly any other situation—because at least if they were gay, they had no business creeping on a girl, and wouldn’t be questioned about it.

****

“Glad you could join us,” the girl said wearily, placing her clipboard on the table. If she thought them slow, Rhett really couldn’t blame her. “I was asking your  _ boyfriend _ if you wanted to fill out a quick survey to try and get a new room. We’re offering three rooms for couples to live in, right here on campus. They’re fully furnished, for some new staff to live in next year. Until then, they will be empty, and the dean thinks that such nice rooms shouldn’t go to waste for the rest of the trimester.”

****

With the matter in his figurative hands and Link’s own hand in his physical hand—something Rhett thought would have been pointless to break off or try to justify now, with her already thinking they were together—Rhett listened attentively and took note of everything. The girl went into semantics, then, talking about a double bed with Egyptian-silk sheets, an en-suite bathroom with a bathtub, and a hi-fi system. There was also something about a washing machine and an oven, maybe an entire kitchen. The thing was like an apartment, it was free, and it sounded like a dream.

****

“How is this… a thing?” Link blurted out before asking anything else, and indignance bubbled up within Rhett. He was supposed to be the one to handle things, and there Link was, audaciously more composed than him.

****

The girl nodded and gave her ready-made answer, “Glad you asked. The whole story is messy, but to sum it up… The dean had a feud with one of the local ministers. The minister, uh — he is a graduate of NC State who went on to find God, and she thought it would be a good thing to invite him here to give the commencement address last year. While she’s not a believer herself, she knows a lot of the graduates here were, and she had big hopes for his speech succeeding. All he did was rant about premarital sex, all the sodomy in college, as one does. Which she tolerated until he said that later in life, they need to be smart, and realise that a major sin was also living with a partner before marriage. The dean had been living with her boyfriend for a month then,” Rhett winced in sympathy for the minister, that sounded rough. He’d heard the rule about not living with a potential spouse before, and even if he was a firm believer, thought it slightly bizarre.

****

The girl kept talking quickly. “She went on to hold her own speech about how it was better to live with someone to test the waters than anchor oneself to someone and then find out you barely know them after you get married. And how she knew a lot of people would have sex, and they shouldn’t stay away from communication and protection, like it was better to talk about some things because they’d be practiced either way. And now she’s certain that this could prove that two people can live happily and in faith or however, before they get married, or it’s like, practice. Better to help people out a little then to fight it, I guess,” she stopped to take a deep breath, “and that’s about it!”

****

“But we’re not—” Link began, and Rhett kicked him in the shin under the table. Rhett looked over to see him frowning, and gave him a reassuring smile.

****

“Hm?” The girl asked, looking between them.

****

“We’re not acquainted with any of this,” Rhett finished lamely, and the girl raised her eyebrows.

****

“Were you not at the sex ed presentation that the dean held on Thursday?” she asked. Rhett remembered that they were going to go, but had instead snuck out and ate beef jerky behind the gym, joking that they already knew all there was to know about sex. Link had been blushing profusely as they talked about it, and it was one of the rare and precious times when Rhett had seen him in cheerful spirits.

****

Rhett shrugged. “I remember something… Uh, anyway, so if we do this, we’ll be… What, a part of some rebellion plot?”

****

The girl considered it for a moment, before smiling. “It’s like you guys already are, what with being so openly, ah, who you are.”

****

“You mean gay?” Rhett said, settling into character a little. The girl, who’d seemed accepting enough, now looked uncomfortable at the word, and Rhett’s brow furrowed. Despite himself, he couldn’t help but to feel indignant. In her eyes, they were a couple, and she still reacted like this. If they were really a couple of gay guys, would it be such a big freaking deal? Rhett knew that it was kinda gross, but it was him and Link. Was it so gross, so much that she couldn’t get the mere word out?

****

Rhett could feel Link freeze in his seat beside him.

****

The girl’s face had darkened, and her initial cheeriness was gone. “Listen, I just need an answer. I don’t really agree with this bit of it, but the dean said that this could just be an added layer to a thing that would piss the minister off.”

****

Rhett narrowed his eyes at her, and she took a deep breath. “Look, even if I don’t know what made you be like this, like, I don’t get it—I also don’t care about who sleeps with who. But the dean does, in this case. And I guess you could be the poster kids for closeted ones.”

****

Link sighed. “It’ll also get our butts kicked,” he added, but Rhett saw he wasn’t protesting it.

****

“We’ll do it,” Rhett said, after careful consideration. Turning to Link, he whispered, “No one can kick my ass. And they better not try and touch you,” he squeezed Link’s hand a little, and then Link let go of his hand, as if he’d been burned. Rhett didn’t think much of it in the moment, deciding to focus on the positives of their new arrangement, of how much time they’d be spending together. 

****

“Great!” the girl exclaimed, probably happy to be done with them. “Fill this in,” she handed them a form that consisted of two pages, “and take it to the dean’s office any time tomorrow, from nine to five. You apply with her directly, hence the ‘she cares about who sleeps with whom,’ y’know,” the girl laughed, standing up.

****

Rhett nodded, looking up at her as he waited for her to leave.

****

“Well, bye,” she said, and Link parroted the “bye”, sounding absent-minded.

****

As soon as she was out of earshot, Link turned to Rhett, an incredulous look in his eyes.

****

“What the hell are you doing?” Link asked, making Rhett flinch a little. Link didn’t curse often, so naturally, this worried Rhett. An unpleasant feeling overtook Rhett—Link could not only deny him this, he could deny him the rest of their friendship.

****

It worried him more when Link didn’t give him a chance to reply, only spoke over Rhett’s attempt at getting an explanation out.

****

“Everyone’s gonna think we’re gay now!” Link whisper-shouted, getting close to Rhett’s face. 

****

Rhett grinned. “They basically already do, ever since the dead move—“

****

“Which was also your fault! God,” Link looked ahead of himself, averting his eyes from Rhett. Rhett pressed his lips together and touched Link’s shoulder, making him cower. A wave of guilt instantly swept over Rhett. He had an urge to console him with sweet words as if he were his actual girlfriend or something.

****

Link shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. “I grow out a beard, everyone thinks I’m gay. I go to the gym, I’m still gay. Anything I do, I’m gay, and for you, always for you. Do you think I’m gay too? Just because I don’t spend half as much time droning on about every freakin’ girl out there like you do?”

****

“I’m sorry,” Rhett hurried to say, “I am. But it ain’t gonna be that bad. This won’t make us actually gay, or something. We’re just gonna have to clear it up to a few people, and then we’ll have the nicest room on campus, a bathtub, anything we freakin’ want. We won’t even have to come to the girls, they’ll be all over those Egyptian sheets in no time. I can already imagine myself with Miss Perfect in our new California King,” Rhett said, grinning. “She wants it, man. Didn’t you see how sad she looked when she found out she couldn’t get it, ‘cause she’s single? She wants it, and we can give it to her. And we have a bathroom to ourselves! No more dirty communal showers or sticking your wet butt to any professor’s back,” Rhett added, looking to make Link laugh.

****

Link nodded soundlessly.

****

“Link?” Rhett asked, “brother?”

****

“You really want us to lie,” Link stated, looking down at his tray.

****

“Do this for me?” Rhett pleaded, his heart beating fearfully in his chest. Had he ruined everything by trying to fix it?

****

“Whatever,” Link huffed, picked his tray up off the table and walked away. Rhett noticed that Link had left his book behind, but didn’t have it in himself to shout after him.

****

Rhett didn’t see Link until that night, when Link walked into the room just as Rhett was about to either give up turning the situation over in his mind and force himself to stop thinking about Link, or get up, put some pants on and go out to look for him. Rhett sat up in the bottom bunk, squinting at Link who had entered the room and leaned against the door with a sigh.

****

“Hey,” Rhett greeted meekly, and Link walked over to his bed until he was standing next to Rhett, looking as if he were steeling himself to say something.To the sound of Gregg’s soft snoring coming from the bed adjacent to his, Rhett waited for Link to speak. 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you once again for all your comments! they mean a lot <3 hope you like this one!

Link had spent the rest of the day after lunch thinking about what Rhett had gotten them into. He knew that it would do him no good to let his attention drift in class, but he couldn’t banish Rhett and his stupidity out of his mind.

****

All day he tried to figure out if people _ knew _ already, if anyone looked at him differently. People only gave him funny looks when he’d stare at them for too long, deep in thought, and he’d snap out of it and shrug it off with an apologetic smile. He figured no one knew yet.

****

No one knew that he was  _ dating _ Rhett McLaughlin. The idea of it made Link’s stomach twist in an odd way and he hoped that the ridiculousness of the idea wouldn’t keep making him feel physically weak for long. But how could it ever stop feeling that way, he’d ask himself, when he was suddenly thrown into a world where people though he was dating his best friend?

****

Making his way to their dorm after classes ended, he slowed down, hesitating in front of the entrance to the building. He’d been actively avoiding Rhett the entire day, and in the end decided he felt like doing it a bit more. He walked past their dorm and down to the gym, then passed that and continued on to a nearby park. He didn’t want to be around anyone right now.

****

No matter how hard he tried, Link couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the situation, to comb through and separate the positives and the negatives. The objective practicality of the situation, of having their own space to live and study instead of being cramped in with Gregg in a room far too small for the three of them, outweighed nearly all of the negatives Link could drum up. He knew not wanting to do it was a good enough reason by itself—but if he were being honest, it wasn’t that Link didn’t  _ want _ to do this. It was just that he had no idea how it was going to work.

****

Plus, even weightier than the practicality of the concept, and far more important than any of the negatives that might arise, was the fact that Rhett wanted it.

****

From the beginning, Link knew he would do it for Rhett. He was still angry with Rhett for signing them up for this without consulting him, but as he gained distance from the incident that afternoon he realized Rhett couldn’t really have asked him, not in the moment. Not if they were going to keep up the pretence of them being  _ boyfriends. _

****

The concept still made Link laugh— _ Rhett, his boyfriend. _

****

Pushing that aside hurriedly, Link thought about all the perks living in a place of their own would provide. He really needed that study space. And some peace. With their own hi-fi, he and Rhett could play Merle Haggard CDs all day long and in luxurious surround-sound, just relaxing on their Egyptian, or whatever Rhett had called it, silk bed. The biggest plus seemed to be their bathroom, which not only had a shower, but a bathtub. Link felt like it had been a decade since he had taken a proper bath in a bathtub.

****

Having decided he’d spent enough time thinking, Link started to make his way out of the sparse grove and back among the concrete buildings of their university. Walking back, he tried not to get stuck on the seemingly single negative of the entire ordeal—the fact that he’d have to pretend to be gay. No one he knew had ever found that lifestyle particularly  _ appealing, _ and Link was surprised when Rhett jumped at the opportunity to play gay with him. Logically, though, he came to the conclusion that Rhett had just found that negative to be something that could be easily overlooked in the face of all the cool stuff they’d be gaining. Truly, the benefits were endless, and Link had to agree with everything Rhett had said. Link couldn’t think of a girl who would pass up the opportunity to hang around in that cool apartment or roll around in a big bed with Rhett. All after Rhett convinced her he was not Link’s, of course.

****

The last thing that went through Link’s mind before he entered their dorm room was the simple fact that if he and Rhett could stay away from all the gross stuff—his stomach did another funny twist at the thought of like,  _ kissing _ Rhett—they’d be fine. Nothing would actually change between them. People could think what they wanted, so long as he and Rhett knew the truth. The lying made Link queasy, but it wasn’t like he was that big of a truth-lover. There was nothing he loved enough that would make him let Rhett down.

****

Link entered the room to find Rhett sitting on the bottom bunk in nothing but his underwear, and Gregg slumbering on the bed on the opposite side of the room. He closed the door and leaned against it, looking down at Rhett.

****

“Hey,” Rhett greeted him quietly, and Link unstuck himself from the door he’d slumped against so that he could make his way over to his  _ boyfriend.  _ Gosh—he knew he wouldn’t get used to  _ that _ on day one, but would he  _ ever _ get used to it? It didn’t feel like it.

****

“Hey,” Link replied, finally. Best to start off slow, with something safe. After all, he only had good news to tell Rhett. He had a strong suspicion that Rhett knew. There was nothing Link wouldn’t do for him, and it seemed embarrassingly obvious.

****

Link sat down on the bed next to Rhett and when he didn’t speak for a bit after, Rhett gulped and launched into a frantic apology. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you decide then. It’s stupid, and I got us into this mess, and I don’t know if I can ever get us out, I’m sorry people think you’re gay, and for none other than me—”

****

Link laughed at the self-deprecating comment, and put a hand on Rhett’s shoulder to stop him. Not a beat later, he removed it, feeling weird to be touching Rhett amidst their new arrangement. “It’s fine,” Link said sincerely, making Rhett’s eyebrows lift brightly, hopefully. The sight made Link smile. “I know that the people are gonna judge me dating a gangly, chin-strapped idiot, but I think I can take it.”

****

Rhett frowned. “Not that I fared any better,” Rhett spluttered, “With your… hair and your… fivehead.”

****

Link laughed brightly, and Rhett gave him a smug smile.

****

“You’re so mean,” Link said, laughing again. “Babe,” he added, and witnessed Rhett’s lips part softly. Rhett turned away, averting his eyes from Link as if he were embarrassed. Rhett had looked away, but Link’s eyes stayed firmly on him—he couldn’t stop looking at him. He was thinking about those lips, now that he’d noticed them. It didn’t seem gross to joke about the pet name. Would it be so gross to kiss Rhett? Two guys kissing was gross, of course, he’d been told on numerous occasions, but Rhett wasn’t that gross. And Link liked to think that he wasn’t that gross himself.

****

Link cleared his throat, but Rhett still didn’t look up at him. “Sorry I… I was thinking we’d better get into character, if we’re doing this.” They could practice pet names, and they could practice kissing, and they could practice love. Seriously, what if someone forced them to kiss to prove that they were really together, Link thought.

****

Rhett finally looked up at him, beaming. “Really? You wanna do this?”

****

Link let out a giggle at Rhett’s excitement. “Sure. What the heck.”

****

Rhett laughed a little, and pulled Link into a hug so swiftly that Link didn’t have time to react. His strong arms squeezed around Link’s waist, and Link brought his arms around Rhett’s own, placing his hands on the warm skin of Rhett’s bare back.

****

“Thank you,” Rhett said quietly, holding a frozen Link close, “You sure you wanna do this? I know I screwed up, but you can say no. I can unscrew it. I’ll tell everyone it’s just a stupid rumour that we’re together and punch out anyone who disagrees—”

****

Link relaxed his head into the crook of Rhett’s neck. “I’m sure,” he said with a chuckle and patted Rhett’s back once before Rhett pulled away as quickly as he’d come close.

****

The hug left Link with another one of those weird, tingly feelings, and he kept thinking about Rhett’s arms around him as Rhett spoke.

****

“… so good, and you know that we’ll be the big deal around here, some girls even get off to the thought of two guys, man, basically the only competition I’ll have around here will be you, and I’m dating you!” Rhett rambled, his voice waning in confidence as he reached that last part, his face flushing a little.

****

Link grinned as he processed some of what Rhett had said. “I’m happy you’re happy,” he said, standing up and starting to remove his button-up.

****

When he pulled his t-shirt off too, his gaze flicked down to Rhett, who was staring at him.

****

Rhett averted his gaze from Link’s chest, and Link watched him curiously as he looked back up at his face. “Are  _ you _ happy?” Rhett asked quietly, pointedly, keeping his eyes on Link as Link unbuttoned his pants and shimmied out of them.

****

“Yeah,” Link said, smiling genuinely, “It’ll be fun. Could be actual practice for something, bo.” Link didn’t let himself dwell on that one for long.

****

Rhett mirrored the smile, and Link placed his clothes on top of a dresser before climbing the ladder up to his bed. Halfway up the ladder, Link could hear Rhett scrambling to get up off his own bed, and for a second thought Rhett was about to suggest that they should practice sleeping together. Sleeping in the  _ sleep _ sense, of course. The other type of bed-sharing made Link’s stomach flip predictably. That was not something he was ready to think about. And yet, inexorably, his mind itched to explore it, torturing him.

****

In the end all Rhett did was say, “Hold on,” as he reached back to the corner of his bed and took something. When he handed it to Link, Link could see that it was his calc textbook.

****

“Oh,” Link said, cheeks colouring when he remembered that he’d left it at their table.

****

“Yeah,  _ oh. _ Good thing you have me,” Rhett said as he walked around Link to take it from him and set it on the dresser for him. He’d said it jokingly, but Link knew it to be true.

****

“Yeah,” Link said with a smile. “Thank you.”

****

“No problem, honey,” Rhett said, looking at Link for a moment, lips pursing as he tried to contain the laughter. Soon he was, of course, cracking up. Link rolled his eyes, making Rhett pipe up indignantly. “You’re the one who said we should practice these!” he said, still laughing.

****

Link shook his head, “Alright, so, what do you wanna be called?” he leaned his elbows up onto his mattress as he looked down at Rhett. “Darling? Baby?” he batted his eyelashes for effect. Rhett looked away for a bit, shaking his head hesitantly. His shyness was soon replaced with mischief, which was evident in his sparkling eyes.

****

“Bumpkin,” Rhett added, making Link giggle loudly. He tried to shut himself up for Gregg’s sake, and leaned his face down into the mattress, muffling his laughter which made Rhett burst out laughing. He seemed to quiet down a little too when he realised that Gregg was asleep in the bed next to them.

****

He only laughed louder when Link offered up, “Pookie-bear.”   
  


“Oh, gosh,” Rhett wheezed, holding his arm over his belly.

****

When he looked up at Link with that happy, open expression, Link thought of a good one. “Love,” he said.

****

Rhett’s laughter steadily died down.

****

“That could actually be a good one,” Link said, shrugging one shoulder, “I’ll call you  _ my love.” _

****

Link liked it because it wasn’t that far from the truth. After all, he did love Rhett, like a brother. Rhett seemed to like it too, because he nodded to confirm it.

****

“That’s not too weird, I guess,” Rhett said, “Can’t really call ya brother if we’re… uh…”

****

“Gosh. Uh, yeah,” Link said, hiding his face in the crook of his elbow a little. He almost asked Rhett to finish that thought, but thought better of it. “We should go to sleep.”

****

“Yeah, yeah,” Rhett agreed quickly. Link nodded again and climbed the rest of the ladder up to his bed. Rhett seemed to hesitate a bit before speaking. “I have no classes tomorrow morning, so I’ll be sleeping when you leave.”

****

Link considered it, “Okay so… You wanna meet at lunch? So we could fill that form out.”

****

Rhett nodded and grinned. Link noticed how he didn’t mention that they’d be there anyway, to see Miss Perfect. Weird how he’d forgotten.

****

“About that, I left it in your book,” Rhett said, moving toward the light switch.

****

“I’ll bring it,” Link said with a smile. Link noticed that he was putting way more weight into mundane conversation than was perhaps normal, and Rhett seemed to be doing it too. Everything was said tentatively and softly, and Link couldn’t help but tracing even the smallest movements of Rhett’s body with his gaze, seeking a reaction to anything Link said in a way he’d never done before.

****

“Okay,” Rhett said, and flicked the lights off before going to bed. “Good night,” he said once the room was plunged into darkness.

****

“Good night,” Link answered, lying down in bed with a sigh.  _ “Love,” _ his mind supplied, making him grimace.

****

-

****

The next morning passed in a blur.

****

It always felt like Link’s day didn’t really start until he met Rhett in the cafeteria, and today that was especially true. When he spotted Rhett a few paces behind him, he gave up his place in line and let three people pass in front of him until he was in front of Rhett. “Hey,” Link greeted, a slow smile stretching his face wide.

****

“Hey,” Rhett said, grinning back.

****

“I brought the papers,” Link said, turning around but looking over his shoulder as they moved in the line, pointing to the bag hanging over his shoulder.

****

“Good, that’s good,” Rhett said.

****

“We should go over them as we eat,” Link added, feeling like he could stay the sole recipient of Rhett’s attention if he kept talking. He didn’t really know why he was so needy for Rhett’s attention all of a sudden. Maybe it was something about keeping up his role as the dutiful, devoted boyfriend.

****

“The line moved,  _ love,” _ Rhett said easily, smirking as Link blushed. Link turned his head back around immediately and went to grab a tray.

****

When they picked their food and utensils and were making their way out to the patio, Link could see Rhett biting his lip and looking over at him nervously.

****

Rhett apparently couldn’t resist justifying himself. “Saw a guy look at us weirdly. Sorry if that sounded weird. I thought it was a good time to try out saying that,” Rhett said. “We have to start sometime.”

****

Link shook his head, “No, it’s fine. Absolutely. It’s like, we gotta start doing it otherwise it’ll seem weird forever.” Link let out a laugh before going on quietly, “I still can’t believe you’re using that word to talk about me—”

****

“I love you, though,” Rhett cut him off, making Link’s face turn lobster-red. Link looked away, and could see a girl from one of the nearby tables looking at them and smiling behind her hand, but Rhett didn’t seem to notice. “I’m man enough to admit that, brother,” Rhett said, elbowing Link in the arm lightly.

****

“Right,” Link spluttered, freaking out just the tiniest bit. Hearing that from Rhett felt good, and Link didn’t know what to do with himself. Rhett could say the weirdest, most thoughtful things sometimes, and think nothing of it.

****

They sat side by side at their regular table, and Link turned his gaze up and to their right, where Miss Perfect was sitting. Rhett was fully facing Link, turned away from Miss Perfect as he idly picked at his fries, waiting for Link to get the form out.

****

Link gulped, briefly thinking of alerting Rhett to her presence, but then decided against it. He set his bag down between his feet and pulled his calc book out, opened it to the last page to find the form and hand it to Rhett before zipping his book back up into his bag. As Rhett pored over the form, Link turned his gaze back to Miss Perfect. He was actually the one who’d coined that name for her. For the longest time, he thought he was in love with her, and when he told Rhett it turned almost into a sort of competition of who liked her more. Link was convinced that Rhett only liked her for her looks, but Link could see underneath that.

****

It was an infatuation that went beyond skin-deep, despite the fact that Link had never actually had a conversation with her. He wanted her, but he also wanted to ask her what her secret was, how she kept that air of calm grace around herself.

****

“Hey,” Rhett called him, and followed his gaze before Link could snap out of it. “Oh,” Rhett grinned, “lookie who’s here.”

****

Link shook his head, and took the form out of Rhett’s hand, making him turn back around. Link welcomed him with a quirked brow, and a tight-lipped smile.

****

“You supposed to be lookin’ at other girls?” Link teased maliciously, something tight in his chest making him spit the question out in the first place.

****

Rhett took it as a joke, because what else could it have been? He laughed, shaking his head as he turned to face Link again. “Man, we better talk to her before she hears things we don’t want her hearing about us.”

****

“Yeah,” Link said, forcing a laugh. If anyone was going to talk to Miss Perfect, it wasn’t gonna be Rhett. Link would make sure of that.

****

“She’s so beautiful,” Link said, pointedly sliding his gaze back to her. He could feel Rhett’s eyes remain on him, but Rhett made no comment about Link’s sudden sentiment.

****

“Anyway,” Link said, shaking his head a little before looking at Rhett. “The form?”

****

Rhett slapped it down on the table dismissively and leaned over his tray, focusing on his food as he waited for Link.  _ Moody, _ Link thought.

  
Link scooted closer and leaned in, reading the form and filling it out with a black, ball-point pen. In truth, he could have done it without Rhett, during one of his more boring classes, because he knew everything from Rhett’s address to his father’s name. He filled everything in quickly as Rhett watched him. For people who allegedly didn’t discriminate, the form was oddly gender-specific, and Link had to take it upon himself to be the  _ girlfriend. _

****

Neither of them had fax or pager numbers, and they weren’t millionaires which meant no cell phones, either.

****

It all went easily until the last set of questions, where Link paused and leaned back.

****

“First of all,” Link began, “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

****

“It’s pretty weird,” Rhett acknowledged it, smiling at him. “So, yeah—how long  _ have _ we been together?” he asked, addressing the last question in the form.

****

“A month?” Link said at the same time that Rhett offered, “Fifteen years?”

****

“Oh,” Link said, cheeks heating up once again. Rhett was able to throw him off-balance so easily, even still, and it drove him nuts.

****

“I mean,” Rhett said, “yeah, maybe we wouldn’t have started dating as soon as we met. So—”

****

“No, I think it’s closest to the truth. Good thinking,” Link praised, voice lowering as he spoke. “I mean if I were really a girl, we probably would have been dating since we were kids.”

****

Rhett shook his head immediately. “It’s not like that, man, we’re just… we work better as friends,” Rhett said. “Besides, even if it was like that, it’s not... you’re a guy, which, gross.” Rhett reached over to take the pen out of Link’s hand.

****

Link chuckled weakly, watching as Rhett scribbled “15 yrs” onto the paper, and tried to ignore the now-familiar twist in his stomach at Rhett’s words.

****

-

****

The inside of the administration building was pleasantly cool, and they were told to wait in the two black, cushiony chairs outside the dean’s door, across from which was the dean’s secretary’s desk. The blond girl who sat behind the big, white computer monitor looked up at them over her glasses, and Link averted his eyes from her, looking down at the form in his hand as he fiddled with it nervously.

****

Suddenly, one of his nervous hands was covered by Rhett’s own, bigger one. “It’ll be fine, bo,” Rhett said, and then moved his hand away, leaving Link speechless, his mind in overdrive. Did Rhett enjoy fazing him? Did he enjoy being weird?

****

Link looked up and saw the girl studying them carefully, which made him quickly avert his gaze again. Link would have been embarrassed if a girl had shown any affection—or whatever it was that Rhett was displaying—for him publicly, let alone  _ this.  _ Let alone  _ Rhett. _

****

The sound of a door opening made Link jump in his chair, and Rhett was up and shaking the dean’s hand before Link had gathered his wits about him enough to stand and introduce himself.

****

“I’m Dean Regina Higgs,” she said, smiling at each of them in turn. “Come on in,” she called, heading into her office, and they followed. She, too, had two chairs facing her desk, though they were pulled up to the desk in a more intimate way than the chairs facing the secretary’s desk, less like a waiting room and more like an interview.

****

Rhett and Link sat down and waited for her to settle in, their gazes meeting occasionally as they looked around the room. Link noted that the room reflected what he knew about the dean perfectly. The decor was minimalistic and practical, with a few plants dotting the two windowsills. The dean herself was dressed in a sleek black and grey suit, with nails painted a sharp pink. A small flower stuck into a tiny vase that sat next to her keyboard on her desk. The few photographs she had on her desk were facing inward, which made Link think that they weren’t there to show her off as amicable to any visitors, but for her own personal reasons. The thought made Link feel better about being here, more comfortable.

****

Link placed the form onto her desk tentatively, and she grinned at him, smoothing out the back of her pants before sitting down. She knotted her fingers and placed them onto the table in front of her, glancing at the form and nodding as she perused it.

****

“Right, okay,” she muttered as if to herself, and then looked up at them with a smile. “Mister… Neal, correct?” she asked, looking at Link.

****

Link nodded. “You can call me Link,” he said, and she smiled at him.

****

“Link, I am so sorry you had to go through this,” she said, glancing down at the form. “It’s just that couples like you two aren’t really the norm here, and I had no idea I would be in the position to even be thinking about a custom-made one.”

****

Link shook his head, laughing nervously as he realised what she meant—he was the  _ girlfriend,  _ “It’s fine.”

****

“It’s not,” she insisted, shaking her head a little. “I should have told Allison to use neutral terms. I thought she’d use partner, but she was more inclined to this, it seems.”

****

“It’s really fine,” Link struggled to reassure her.

****

She gave him a brief smile before leaning back in her chair and uncrossing her fingers so that she could grab a piece of paper from one of the drawers. She placed the piece of paper in front of Link, and instructed him to scoot away from Rhett a little.

****

“You’ll be apart only for a few minutes, don’t worry,” she teased good-naturedly. Link looked over at Rhett, and almost burst out laughing at the way Rhett raised his brows at the comment.

****

Link sat so that he was facing the window, on the right side of the desk. Dean Higgs handed him a blue pen and turned slightly in her seat so she could easily face either one of them.

****

“I hope you’ll understand that I can’t offer any special treatment,” she said. “I understand that maybe you aren’t in the same position as... regular couples, since stepping out as gay in a community like this one isn’t something one would take lightly.” This stung Link a little, and he could see the guilt in Rhett’s face when he looked over at him. Dean Higgs continued. “But there have been several instances of a girl and a boy, who were friends, coming over here and trying to take away the opportunity for real couples to have a space to practice living together for their joint future. I’m obviously hoping you aren’t like that, but I just can’t take that chance.”

****

Link shot Rhett a nervous look that Rhett reflected back at him, but neither said anything.

****

“So, to make this fair, I am going to ask you two a few simple questions that any boyfriends should know about each other,” she said, grinning at them. “Link, you’ll write your answers down, and Rhett will answer verbally, then you can tell me after Rhett finishes what you’ve written. If your answers match, you’ll be just fine. If they don’t, then, well… let’s just hope they do. I’m not actually looking for any information, anyway, I just want to see if you two are telling the truth.”

****

Link gulped, looking at Rhett and fiddling with the pen in his hand. Rhett smiled at him reassuringly, and Link felt a bit more at ease.

****

“Let’s begin!” she said enthusiastically, looking between the two of them. “Link, you may begin writing, just hide your answer from your partner.”

****

“Right,” Link said through gritted teeth, uncapping the fancy pen and putting it to paper.

****

“The first question I’m going to ask you is simple enough, and that is to shortly tell me how you two met.”

****

Link wrote his short answer and covered it with his hand as Rhett began speaking.

****

“Well, uh,” Link could feel Rhett’s eyes on him, but kept his own eyes down so as not to raise any suspicion. “We met on the first day of school. We were seated next to each other because of our last names which were close alphabetically, and I remember some kids asking to be seated next to others, but I stayed put. Truth is, I’d noticed Link when we were all just piling in front of the school and thought he looked cool, so when he sat next to me, I thought it was like, destiny. We were gonna become best friends, I could feel it. We hit it off pretty quickly and, uh, got detention for writing profanities on the desk. ’s how we became friends.”

****

Link looked up at Rhett, watching him quietly as he spoke. Rhett was looking at Dean Higgs, a small smile on his lips.

****

“I knew I liked him instantly, but I never knew it was like this, all until one day,  at this one party, I saw him kissing his girlfriend from across the room, just as I was kissing mine. It was the best thing I’d felt up until then—it was like I was kissing him. The only thing that felt better was  _ actually _ kissing him. Then we were about to go to college, we’d agreed to go to film school together. But my dad wouldn’t let me. When Link gave up film school for me, I realised I’d have done the same for him. I realised I loved him, more than anything.”

****

When Rhett finished, Link knew that he looked just as dazed as Dean Higgs did.   
  


“That seems almost too good to be true,” she commented, putting something down on the piece of paper in front of her, and to Link’s paranoid mind it sounded like she was doubting them.  _ Shit _ .   
  


“My policy is three questions,” she said. “Alright, Link,” she chirped. “Let’s see what you wrote.”

****

Link moved his hand to let her take the paper, still looking at Rhett, who glanced at him only briefly and then looked away, his cheeks reddening. Link wanted to pick his brains and find out exactly what kind of thoughts swam in there. Rhett was, Link thought, unreal.

****

_ “First day of first grade, _ says here,” the dean said, sounding winded. She gave Link a small smile. “Alright. Well, let’s do two short ones. Could you two tell me what Rhett’s biggest fear is versus what Link’s favourite thing in the world is?”

****

Smirking down at his paper, Link put down  _ Heights. _ The smirk smoothed into a fond smile as he answered the second one without having to think twice.

****

Rhett waited for him to finish writing before he started speaking. Flicking his gaze up from Link to the dean, he cleared his throat. “Well, for someone so tall, I’m actually really scared of heights,” Rhett said, chuckling. “As for Link’s favourite thing, well… that’s gotta be me,” Rhett said, laughing a little. He sobered up when the dean picked up the paper in front of Link.

****

Rhett sat up straighter in his chair and rushed to take it back, “I’m only joking—“

****

“No,” the dean said, shaking her head, “that’s exactly what it says here.”

****

Rhett looked over at Link, relaxing in his seat. Link met his eyes and shrugged, grinning. Rhett narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, smiling and looking at him as if he was wandering what kind of thoughts lived inside Link’s own head.

****

“Alright, boys,” the dean said, standing up, and they took it as their cue to stand up too. “Seems like we’re done here. There’s eleven couples in the running so far, and as you know, only three rooms, so I wish you the best of luck in getting one.”

****

Link’s face fell for a moment, and he thought about how all of this might have all been for nothing. He decided not to complain about it to Rhett—after all, he wasn’t suffering, having to talk about loving Rhett. It’s not like anything he said wasn’t true.

****

The dean showed them to the door and they said their good-byes before leaving. As they made their way back to their dorm, Link looked up at Rhett for a while before speaking.

****

“You’re such a good liar.”

****

Rhett looked down and smiled at him softly. His eyes flicked to several spots on Link’s face—his eyes, the edges of his face and his hair, his stubbled cheek, his lips, and back to his eyes. He seemed to take an unnaturally long time before finally replying quietly. “You wouldn’t believe it.”

****

-

****

They walked the rest of the way to their room in silence, and Link mockingly opened their dorm room door for Rhett. Rhett give him a sour smile, which made Link laugh.

****

They found Gregg sitting on the floor, hunched over a controller as he played video games.

****

“Oh shit,” Gregg muttered, flicking his gaze to the two of them. “Link Neal, playing truant?”

****

“I got class at four,” Link said offhandedly. “How do you still not know my schedule?”

****

“Listen,” Rhett said, sitting on Gregg’s bed next to him. “We need to talk to you about something, before you hear it from anyone else.”

****

“Oh, I heard in trig today,” Gregg said, “Some girl asked everyone if they knew, or something. I was like, of course I fucking know.”

****

Rhett’s mouth hung open, and Link completely understood the sentiment. “What?” Rhett asked weakly, and Link sat down next to him, careful not to touch him.

****

“So now that you’re moving out,” Gregg said, pausing his game to look up at them, “You think I’ll be getting some new roommates? Ones that won’t fuck around under the covers of the bottom bunk till like four in the morning?”

****

Rhett blanched, and Link cringed a little.

****

“Would you believe it if we told you that we were playing hot hands?” Link didn’t think he’d do any better calling it slapsies, and no other name for the game came to mind. He knew exactly what Gregg meant—an incident that winter when he and Rhett were playing the game for some of Link’s  _ Big Hunk _ chocolate bars, ones that his mom had sent him. They’d stayed up until two in the morning, huddled together under a blanket because of the early December cold, and when Link had finally won the best-twenty-five-out-of-thirty, he told Rhett that he could have the nougat bars, since they weren’t really his favorites.

****

Rhett had dead-moved him in his own bed.

****

“I believe that’s exactly what you were doing,” Gregg said, smug smile in place.

****

“I mean—” Link began, and Gregg rushed to cut him off.

****

“Dude, it’s fine. If I minded, I’d have asked to room with someone else within the first week. Y’all ain’t that slick. I knew immediately, I’m just glad you’re out with it now. Out and proud, ain’t that what it is?” he asked, grinning up at them toothily.

****

“But we aren’t really together,” Rhett said frantically, sounding a bit like he was suffering an emotional crisis. “We’re just doing this to cheat them out of the cool apartment.”

****

Gregg turned to his game, dismissing him. “Right, okay. Sure, listen—I hear there’s a bathtub in that apartment. Y’all better vacate that bathroom every Tuesday and Sunday, also known as Gregg’s wash days. Capisce?”

****

Link chuckled, and Rhett looked at him incredulously.

****

“Of course, Gregg,” Link said, standing up and patting him on the shoulder as he walked past him, “If we get the apartment, you’ll be the first to know.” 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Afterwards, Rhett couldn’t discern if he’d been lying to the dean about being in love with Link, or lying to Link about not being in love with him. His own words were getting to him, putting crazy ideas in his head. In the end, he told himself for the hundredth time that there was no way the latter was possible—it was only that the situation was making him feel weird things. It was something that made him dizzy when he thought about it, and there was no way he could look at it clearly. Of course the words he’d said about Link weren’t true. Of course.

****

Still unsettled, Rhett took the rest of the day off, skipping his remaining classes in favor of hanging out with Gregg. He spent the afternoon lying with his feet on his pillow and his head at the foot of the bed, hanging over the mattress, eating chips upside-down. He craned his neck so he could watch Gregg play video games, savoring the comfortable silence. There was no tension with Gregg. They were buddies, nothing more.

****

Neither of them mentioned Link or the apartment, but as Gregg switched from  _ Crash Bandicoot _ to  _ Final Fantasy VII _ , which Rhett had already beaten the week before, Rhett found his attention wandering back to the situation once again. For all that they were faking their romantic relationship, Rhett was still positive that they were going to win one of the rooms—after all, what other couple could outdo them at, well,  _ coupling?  _ It didn’t matter that they weren’t actually together. There wasn’t anyone, real couple or not, who knew each other better than he and Link did, and he was going to make dang sure he’d be the best boyfriend Link would ever have.

****

Fake boyfriend. Whatever.

****

When Link came back to the room, Rhett knew what kind of sight he presented. Greasy from the chips with crumbs all over him, he knew he didn’t paint the picture of the perfect boyfriend. On his way to put his bag down by their bed, Link passed him, and Rhett looked up at him from his spot on the bed. If Link really were his boyfriend, would he have bent down and kissed him? Probably not, he was all greasy anyway. But—but maybe Link  _ would _ do it, since that would be sweet, and Link was sweet. He’d be an even better boyfriend to Rhett than Rhett could be to him. Well, couldn’t. Or sort of actually  _ was. _

****

This was too much.

****

Rhett shook his head and sat up in the bed, watching Link move around soundlessly. The fact that Link was his boyfriend still didn’t sit quite right with him, even if he’d been the one who initiated the idea of the relationship. It wasn’t a lark like he’d thought it would be, and instead made his mind occupied at all times with the weirdest thoughts. He’d planned on actively practicing calling Link sweet names, but every time he wanted to get one of their pre-agreed-upon  _ love _ s, it was like Rhett’s throat dried out. He couldn’t get the word out. It didn’t make him want to laugh, it felt more like a cruel joke than anything. It made him feel… queasy, and his heart fluttered uncomfortably at the thought.

****

Rhett lay back down on his bed when Link sat down next to Gregg for a quick game of  _ Need for Speed 2 _ —one eye always on the textbook that he’d placed beside him on the floor. After he was done, Rhett watched him disappear out of the room as he undoubtedly went to the bathroom. By the time Link was back, Rhett and Gregg were already in bed, talking lazily. With a quick goodnight, Link turned the lights off, took his book and pulled the cord of the small lamp up to his bed. A faint light flickered overhead when Link climbed up to bed, and Rhett knew that he’d turned the lamp on, probably to read something for school under the light. Rhett listened to him turn the pages and shuffle around on the mattress until sleep took him.

****

-

****

The next few days were fraught with anxiety for Rhett, the worry that they wouldn’t get the apartment a constant humming in the back of his mind. He didn’t mention it to Link, though, trying his best to keep things normal between them. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if he worried Link. Besides, if they didn’t get it, Rhett was pretty sure he would be expected to shrug it off like it was nothing, a disappointment, nothing more. On the contrary, Rhett felt like he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if they didn’t get it. It felt much better to think about how their friendship could blossom in that space. Rooming together like this, with Gregg, was good enough, but this would bring him even closer to Link. The worry of Link leaving him or not speaking to him for days on end would almost completely dissipate, and he could show his appreciation for Link more freely. Under the pretence of being his boyfriend, Rhett could tell him all sorts of things that went through his mind, especially in public, and only laugh them off if he came off as too weird.

****

The first chance Rhett got to tentatively test out the limits of their newfound relationship was when they got the green light to move into their new apartment.

****

It was a Sunday morning—which meant no classes and longer sleeping hours even for the studious Link—when Rhett found out. He’d been headed to the McDonald’s to stack up on Big Macs when he was sidetracked by a group of people huddling in front of the door to the administration building.

****

Nearing it, he saw a piece of paper plastered to the glass on the door, one which let him know the new occupants of the new building which housed, Rhett would later quote to Link,  _ three en-suite rooms, two on the first floor with the third one on the ground floor next to a shared study, lounge, and kitchen space. _

****

At the near-bottom of the paper, next to the number three, it said,  _ Mclaughlin, R.  _ and _ Neal, L. _

****

Directly under it, in condensed cursive, it said: _ All new tenants are to report to the dean at soon as they are able to, during the working hours of the office. If they do not claim their spot by the thirtieth of March, we will be forced to look for more eligible tenants. _

****

Checking the watch of someone nearby, Rhett noticed that it was already past eleven. With the office only open until noon on Sundays, Rhett shelved the idea of McDonald’s for the moment and pushed past the group, angling his way into the building and striding into the secretary’s office.

****

“Go on in,” she said, not looking up from her magazine, “you’re expected.”

****

Rhett took a deep breath and straightened his haphazardly-donned t-shirt before knocking on the door.

****

“Come in,” a familiar voice called from the inside, and Rhett opened the door to let himself in. He saw Dean Higgs sitting behind her desk, and she gestured for him to reclaim his spot from a few days ago. He sat in front of her, his hands in his lap as he waited for her to address him.

****

“So, Mister McLaughlin,” she said, smiling at him, “I would ask you for some identification but you and your boyfriend are quite unforgettable.”

****

Rhett nodded and gave her a forced smile, waiting for her to get on with it.

****

“So, I don’t think there’s much to discuss,” she said. “It was decided that you two would be two of the lucky six to occupy the new apartment building down near the grove.”

****

Rhett nodded, and, feeling like he should say something, mumbled, “thank you, ma’am.”

****

“No need to thank me! You won fair and square, and the school could do with a bit of our diversity being spoken about publicly.”

****

Rhett froze. “Is it going to be… very public?”

****

She laughed. “Oh no. Don’t you worry. I might mention it to a few people, but you will probably not be mentioned by name. It’ll be a good thing to show the school off as accepting of your kind, is all I meant.”

****

“Right,” Rhett said, nodding. The dean took a long time looking at him, her eyes narrowed in curiosity.

****

“Can I ask you something personal?” she asked finally. Rhett looked away, suddenly uncomfortable.

****

“I guess,” Rhett said very carefully, thinking she was about to ask if it was hard to fake being in love with your best friend, or something.

****

“Which one’s the gay one?” she asked, making Rhett pause.

****

“What?” he uttered, leaning in a little as if it would help him understand her question better.

****

“Your earrings,” she said, pointing at her own ears, “You’re wearing one in this ear and another in—ah, all I meant is, I thought there was some rule about  _ you… guys _ wearing your earrings in a specific ear, and I don’t know which one it was.” 

****

Rhett laughed a little, relieved to find that the question was actually as simple as it was bizarre.

****

“Oh, yeah. It’s the right ear,” he said, and was almost interrupted by a very confused Dean Higgs.

****

“So why are you—?” she asked, pointing at him now, as if the sight was completely unfathomable.

****

Rhett studied her for a bit, wondering why she seemed to care that fiercely, and smirked. “I guess you could say I swing both ways,” he said nonchalantly, surprised at himself with how fast he could think of something witty to say.

****

This made her splutter, leaning back in her chair as she embarrassedly sought for something on her desk. Rhett didn’t feel the least bit guilty about acting unprofessionally—she was the one who’d started it with her question.

****

Finally, she turned to Rhett and placed two keys, one labeled with a tag, onto the desk in front of him. “Here are your keys. One for the building, the other for the room. It’s essentially all you need to start your new, shared life. Feel free to settle in at your leisure, and bear in mind that I will be down to check in on you sometime later, so you might want to be there. I’ll be there for the next few days, of course, when word gets out and everyone has picked up their keys, but seeing as you are already here… I’ll start looking over the apartments as soon as my shift is done, which will be at noon.”

****

“Yes, ma’am,” Rhett said, picking up the key. He stood up and started making his way out of the room, and left with a final “Goodbye.”

****

His stomach gave a loud, ill-timed grumble, but he ignored it and the secretary who looked up at him. He walked out of the building quickly, turning the keys over in his hand. The tag on the key said only a single digit—3.

****

Once out among the people who were still scattered around there, chatting, he noticed various pairs of eyes ogling him. A few girls gazed at him with interest, but he didn’t feel like he had time to linger—first he had to tell Link the good news.

****

He paid them no more attention and elatedly whizzed past them on the way back to his dorm. And screw the  _ Big Macs, _ he thought, they were not fit for someone who had the keys to the kingdom.

****

-

****

Later, when Link was going out to get something to eat, Rhett would beg him to get him a burger. 

****

The initial excitement had subsided somewhat, but was still omnipresent, making Rhett feel like he could move mountains with Link by his side. All they really had to move were their suitcases, which Rhett got out from under his bunk as soon as he got back to their room.

****

Link was awake and had just pulled his shirt on when Rhett rushed back into the room, making a beeline for the suitcases. He only managed to pull them out before the happy feeling overcame him and he turned back to Link, dazedly rushing back toward him. He scooped Link up into a hug, making Link protest.

****

“Man, what—”

****

“We got it!” Rhett exclaimed, releasing him from the short hug and moving away.

****

“What?” Link asked incredulously, and Rhett knew that he’d heard it, he just needed a moment to take it in. “Really?” Link asked, looking up at Rhett with wide, bright eyes.

****

“Yeah!” Rhett said through a happy laugh.

****

“Aww,” he could hear Gregg, whom they’d apparently roused out of his sleep, mumble behind him. “Congrats, guys.” He smiled at them before pulling the covers he was tucked up in tighter around himself and closing his eyes.

****

“We got it,” Link whispered, as if he still couldn’t believe it.

****

Rhett’s smile widened as he looked at Link. “We got it, bo! We should start packin’,” he said, moving to raid his own closet. He brought armfuls of clothes and dumped them into his suitcase, zipping it only when it was close to bursting. Link arranged his clothes in his suitcase more carefully, saying they should save their future selves the trouble of folding clothes once they got there. Rhett disregarded it, making Link roll his eyes. Rhett thought it was cute when he did that—when he said that to Link, Link only seemed more annoyed with him.

****

“Whatever, man…” Link trailed off, shaking his head and looking away. Rhett shrugged.

****

They spent some time just packing, smiling at each other when they’d both paused to take a quick break. Rhett looked at Link, bumped his shoulder against Link’s and felt like hugging him again, but then Link moved away, shaking his head as he resumed packing.

****

Rhett felt a sense of unease wash over him, but he shrugged it off. They had the apartment—nothing, not even Link’s grumpiness, could dull his excitement right now.

****

In the hallway outside their room, suitcase in hand and the apartment key in his pocket, Rhett closed their dorm room door behind them and turned to Link, who was smiling at him.

****

“You ready, Link?” Rhett asked, smiling back at him.

****

Link nodded, and together they made their way to their new temporary home.

****

-

****

Apartment number three turned out to be the one furthest down the hall on the first floor. Rhett had relayed all that he had found about the apartment to Link, and when he opened the door, all of his expectations were met. He was faced with a bright, clean room, which had a genuinely huge bed in the middle of it, pressed up against the wall on their left. Across from it, on a chest of drawers, sat a hi-fi system, and next to it a huge TV set. Rhett hadn’t expected that one—no one had really mentioned it. A TV was commonplace for everyone, really, but Rhett hadn’t been expecting one like  _ this _ . 

****

“Gosh,” Link whispered next to him, and Rhett watched him walk into the room. Rhett couldn’t help but smile, because Link  _ fit. _

****

Standing in the centre of the room, Link looked around in awe, and turned back to Rhett, beaming. A wave of sentimentality swept over Rhett, drowning him in cheesy feelings and thoughts. He and Link had been through so much together, and they were there, now, in the best place anyone at their college could have wished to be in.

****

“Worth it,” Link said, his smile widening when his eyes settled onto Rhett’s own.

****

Rhett smiled back and turned to close the door behind him.

****

“I feel kinda bad,” Link said, but nothing in his face suggested he really did—he was still looking up at Rhett happily, “We cheated someone out of _ this.” _

****

Rhett grinned and walked past him, dragging his suitcase and putting it at the foot of the bed. “There were no other gay people,” Rhett began, and then paused. Had he said  _ other? _ That didn’t feel like the right choice of words, but he pressed on anyway, “Uh. So, I don’t feel that bad.”

****

Link nodded and wheeled his suitcase to put it next to Rhett’s, and they began to unpack. Link’s efficiency back in their dorm meant he was finished long before Rhett, putting away his last shirt while Rhett’s suitcase was still half-full of wrinkled clothes. When he was done, Link zipped his empty suitcase back up and sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for Rhett. Rhett could feel Link’s eyes on him, and felt weirder unpacking when being watched that closely. Whenever he turned and met Link’s eyes, Link was smiling at him, and Rhett could feel himself flush because of it.

****

It wasn’t long before Link took one of Rhett’s shirts and began folding it, and Rhett didn’t complain.

****

“Thanks, babe,” Rhett said, stomach a fluttering mess as he said it. Link giggled at the endearment, nodding as if he approved of Rhett testing pet names out.

****

Rhett kept looking at him as Link focused on the clothes and paid him no mind. Pretty soon, they were done, and ready to go back to their room with their empty suitcases and get their remaining possessions from their old room.

****

Wheeling his empty suitcase back to their dorm with Link by his side, Rhett noticed two girls huddled by the door to the gym, each with a cigarette in hand. They were good looking enough, Rhett figured, both with quite a bit of their tanned skin on display in the late-March sun.

****

He smiled at the shorter of the two, the one nearer to him, and she smiled back. 

****

Turning to her friend, she cooed, “aww, they’re so cute.”

****

The other girl’s features softened as she looked at Rhett. “Aww, that’s them? They’re adorable. I wonder if the shorter one would wanna be my gay best friend—”

****

Rhett hung his head and sped up past them, not wanting to hear any more of the conversation. As they walked away, he looked at Link, who was looking as if he were trying not to laugh. Link met his gaze and grinned.

****

“Sorry,” Link said, “I’m ruining your game.”

****

“You’re not ruining anything,” Rhett said, the corner of his own lips tilting up into a small smile. “They weren’t even worth telling that we aren’t actually together.”

****

Link nodded. “Uh, I guess we should choose carefully who we tell that this is not real. Word could get around that we’re faking it, and then we could get evicted or somethin’.”

****

“Good thinkin’, brother,” Rhett said, then winced. He really had to make sure he stopped using that particular nickname. He opened the door to their dorm for Link, an exaggerated show of chivalry that made Link aim a mockingly saccharine smile up at him. They picked up the rest of their stuff quickly and left Link’s gaming gear attached to the TV, in case Gregg woke up and freaked out when he saw that his only source of fun in the room was gone. Rhett figured that he and Link could do without video games for a while, and still have plenty of fun.

****

Link walked back to their new home elatedly, a spring in his step. The sight thrilled Rhett. He still couldn’t believe this was their reality, but it was, and it was awesome. He couldn’t wait for what the upcoming months would bring.

****

After they unpacked the rest of their things, filling the shelves on the wall and the big wardrobe between the two big windows with their stuff, the room began to look like an actual home. All that was missing was some framed photos of their life together, all of Link’s tapes and CDs, Rhett’s basketball trophies and medals and paraphernalia which would make the room seem like an actual apartment they lived in together. Maybe later, if he and Link lived together—

****

Rhett shook his head at the thought. Rooming together now and pretending they were in love was justifiable, but if later on they had the money to each live in their own apartment, living together as bachelors couldn’t really be explained away, and people would talk.

****

When he finished unpacking, Rhett sat at the edge of their big bed and ran his palm over the soft covers. Link sat next to him, smiling almost shyly as he used his hand to mirror Rhett’s actions.

****

“This bed is so big,” Link said, looking behind himself—Rhett followed his gaze and looked at the white, silky covers that seemed to stretch for days. He nodded his agreement.

****

At some point, when Rhett wasn’t paying attention, Link had taken his shoes off. When Rhett looked back at him he was taking his socks off too.

****

“What are you—” Rhett barely got out before Link was climbing up onto the bed to stand on it. “Dude,” Rhett let out a laugh, cheeks hurting with how much they bunched up above his smile. “We  _ can’t.” _

****

Link rolled his eyes, moving his feet so that he made a bigger dent in the bed and the mattress undulated underneath him before it pushed back up, making Link wobble. “C’mon,” he said, a wry smile on his face.

****

Rhett’s feet were bare within seconds. To the sound of Link’s giggles, he got up onto the bed and slowly found his footing, Link taking a hold of his waist until Rhett could stand up safely on his own. Then, Link let go and got down into an almost crouching position before springing up, jumping off the bed with his knees tucked up high. As he jumped, he laughed, and came down with his feet pointed, which made him bounce off the bed. Rhett started wobbling tentatively, having more fun watching Link jump than actually jumping himself. He checked the ceiling, which was unnaturally and beautifully high, and decided he could bounce a bit harder without worrying he’d hit his head.

****

Link didn’t seem to have time for Rhett’s hesitation. When he came down again, he grabbed Rhett by the hand, holding it as he jumped lightly.

****

“Jump,” Link instructed, so childish that Rhett felt like his heart was smiling. He nodded and went about jumping onto the bed a bit more enthusiastically, and together they bounced on it. Rhett feared that they would break the bed— _ that _ would be something to explain.

****

Link was looking all around the room, his hand squeezing Rhett’s gently, but Rhett’s eyes were only on Link. There was  _ something _ in the fact that this twenty-one year old, stubbled, serious guy was acting like this, and only allowing Rhett to see him like that. Rhett was the only one who knew that first and foremost, Link was a goof. He’d always been childish, with bad jokes, and high-pitched laugh, a tendency to put them in near-death situations with his cooking or his driving. Rhett couldn’t have been more proud about his choice of a best friend.

****

Link seemed to tire of the jumping soon, or just felt like lying down. He smiled at Rhett and let go of his hand before throwing himself back on the bed, his butt bouncing off the mattress one last time before he settled down. Rhett ceased his own jumping gradually and sat down onto the bed, leaning back to lie down next to Link. Panting, he looked at the ceiling, around the room, and then back at Link.

****

It was because of Link that they were there, able to enjoy all the privileges of their apartment. Rhett hadn’t even seen the bathroom yet, but Link had taken a peek into it and looked flabbergasted when he stepped out, which probably meant that it was amazing. It was because of Link that he didn’t feel so alone at college, because Link had decided to follow him there. Link had been making his entire life better since the moment Rhett had laid eyes on him. Looking at Link now, Rhett felt his chest tighten in a way it had more than once during the past week. Rhett wanted to let Link know how much he appreciated him, how good Link was to him and for him, how if Link wanted Rhett to be his actual boyfriend, Rhett would consider doing even that for him. All of his thoughts just came out as:

****

“I’m so lucky to have you.”

****

Link’s gaze snapped to him, his lips parted in surprise.

****

“I know exactly what you mean,” Link said, his eyes warm as he smiled at Rhett.

****

Rhett thought about the bed they were lying in. If they had been a real couple, Rhett would have reached over and put his hand on Link’s waist to pull him closer. He would have kissed him, and they probably would have  _ christened _ the bed.

****

The thought made Rhett shiver all over. That was not something he was ready to think about. Safer things, like kissing Link, suddenly wouldn’t leave his mind. Maybe it would leave him if he did it, Rhett thought. It seemed innocuous enough. Maybe he could kiss Link just once, just to see how it would feel. Just so he could remind himself of how unnatural it would feel, just to put himself off from thinking about it so much.

****

It seemed so easy to lean in and close the distance between them. Link’s face was so close, his blue eyes lidded as he looked at Rhett, his lips slightly parted. Rhett moved his head a bit closer—not to kiss him, maybe, or maybe to do exactly that—when there was a knock at the door.

****

The person who knocked apparently wasn’t about to waste any time before trying the doorknob. Rhett sat up quickly, making himself dizzy. The bed creaked slightly as Link did the same, and there was a pleased sigh from behind the door as their visitor managed to open it.

****

“Hello,” a female voice Rhett immediately recognised called out. Suppressing a groan, he straightened up a little as she peeked into the room behind the door.

****

“How’s my favourite couple?” she asked, smiling pleasantly.

****

Rhett forced a smile. “We’re real good.”

****

Link’s smile looked to be more genuine. “It’s really nice here,” he spoke softly, and looked at Rhett. “I really like it.”

****

Rhett’s heart jumped up into his throat. Link took the talking from there, and let the dean know that they had everything they needed, and thanked her.

****

“Well,” she said, as a mock-warning, “you boys better say if there’s anything you need. The cleaning ladies will be here every three to four days to clean up, so don’t worry about that.”

****

Rhett watched Link smile and nod for the both of them, and they said their goodbyes in unison. Before leaving, the dean looked at them and said, “Oh, and, before I forget. There’s condoms and other necessities in the bathroom in one of the cupboards. Just because you can’t get pregnant doesn’t mean you shouldn't stay safe!”

****

Rhett looked at Link embarrassedly and saw him blushing profusely. Rhett figured his face didn’t look any less red than Link’s.

****

A beat after the door slammed shut behind their dean, Rhett threw himself back on the mattress. He’d been enjoying that position quite a bit before he was interrupted, and was eager to resume it. As if reading his thoughts and knowing the comfort of the position wouldn’t be the same without him, Link lay back on the bed too, stretching out next to him.

****

Rhett leaned up on one hand, nearing Link a little and hovering over him. Link looked up at him curiously and smiled a little, though it fell away as Rhett kept looking at him, frowning. There wouldn’t have been a smile to speak of on Link’s face if Link could actually read Rhett’s mind and know what kind of crazy things were going through it.

****

Trying to think about something else, Rhett let his mind drift to Miss Perfect, thought about how he’d probably have kissed her already if it were her that lay beneath him and not Link. For obvious reasons, but also the reason that she wouldn’t reject him as violently as Link undoubtedly would. There was also the fact that Rhett could stand to lose Miss Perfect, if she did end up rejecting him. With Link, well, not so much.

****

A taste of something forbidden or a practical joke weren’t worth Link being mad or grossed out by him. Rhett’s mind tried to wander to doing more than kissing with Link, grotesquely, and Miss Perfect, preferably, but he soon stopped it. Thinking about either of the two filled his mind with confusing thoughts. He gave up thinking about any of it, realizing he couldn’t really imagine himself fucking Miss Perfect in this bed—in  _ their _ bed.

****

“What?” Link asked amusedly, after Rhett had been staring at him for a bit too long.

****

Rhett kept the frown on his face. “You can have Miss Perfect,” he said, lying back down onto his back and looking up at the ceiling.

****

Link gasped softly beside him. “You mean it?”

****

Rhett nodded, and soon Link was hovering over him, a confused expression on his face.

****

_ “Why?” _

****

Rhett frowned. “What why?” His voice sounded tight. It was harder to speak with Link so close—and why was Link so close? Why was he so weird?

****

As soon as Rhett thought it, he heard the door opening from behind them, and Link snapped around to face it.

****

“Hey, lovebirds,” Gregg said as he stepped into the room with absolutely no reservations. Rhett could excuse his not knocking on the fact that his hands were full with Link’s Playstation and an assortment of games. Rhett sincerely hoped he didn’t intend to come over and play all the time.

****

“Y’all forgot this,” Gregg said, and Rhett stood up from the bed to help him carry it in. Both of them turned to Link, who was still half-lying on the bed. Looking over at Gregg with an apologetic expression, Link began to explain their situation to Gregg, “Look, we gotta pretend to like… be in love and stuff, and if you were here all the time it would seem—”

****

Gregg put a hand up and subsequently dropped one of the games in his hands. “Link, buddy. I get it. Y’all wanna fuck, and don’t want me around, like, not that I would want to be, trust me. I’ll just come over and play video games on your big TV from time to time. Every Tuesday and Sunday,” he paused for a second to set the playstation next to the TV. “Every other day. At most.”

****

Rhett shook his head and let Gregg get on with it. Looking resigned, Link lay back on the bed, and Rhett soon joined him.

****

“I know I agreed to marriage,” Link muttered when Gregg had rushed out of the room, “but I wasn’t ready to be married with a kid.”

****

Rhett laughed, looking down at Link. “Maybe I should start calling him son,” he suggested, making Link giggle. Rhett felt pleased to have made him laugh.

****

“Maybe,” Link said softly, and got up.

****

Rhett quirked a brow at him, and Link spoke to explain, “gonna go get something to eat, and then I should go to the library. Need some books for a book report. Should study for tomorrow, but I might do that downstairs. We do have our own study space now, should use it.”

****

Rhett wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to, but something stopped him.

****

“Alright,” he said, giving Link a supportive smile.

****

Placing a gentle hand on top of Rhett’s own for a moment before standing up, Link said, “thank you,” and went to get his wallet.

****

“Thank you,  _ love,” _ Rhett corrected mockingly.

****

Link cracked a smile and nodded. “Thank you, love.”

****

It wasn’t until Link was halfway out the door that Rhett yelled after him, “hey!”

****

Eyes oddly hopeful, Link turned around.

****

“Could you bring me back a Big Mac?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all so much for the amazing support <3 love ya! hope you like this!

Link couldn’t figure it out. How could Rhett just give her over? How could he just give the possibility of dating most perfect specimen of humanity away? No — with Rhett, Link thought, dating wasn’t a possibility but a certainty. If Rhett had just approached her, she would’ve said yes. Link was sure of it.

****

Maybe, if Link were more thoughtful, or if Rhett had expressed more of an interest in Miss Perfect, Link would have given her over. He certainly wasn’t planning on actually fighting Rhett for her. And if Rhett wanted to just give that away...

****

All of this brought Link to his final decision — he would not hesitate in approaching Miss Perfect anymore. The next day at lunch, he would drag Rhett and himself over to sit at her table. He would open with a compliment and smoothly introduce the both of them. Because now there was not only himself to disappoint anymore. Rhett must have believed in him too for him to give her over, and Link couldn’t stand looking like a wimp in front of Rhett.

****

With determination coursing through his veins, Link hurried to McDonalds, and came back to their room only to find that Rhett had already eaten. No matter how quick Rhett’d been at stuffing the candy wrappers away, Link had caught a brief sight of the trademark Snickers colors and couldn’t help but roll his eyes. He reckoned that rolling his eyes was something he was going to be doing even more, now that they were living in even closer quarters.

****

But even if he had been munching on sweets, Rhett looked overjoyed at the sight of Link. His mouth dropped open in a wide smile when Link raised the paper bag up, and he rubbed his hands together when Link set it on the desk Rhett occupied.

****

Link plopped his behind onto the other chair, the one behind the desk opposite Rhett’s. The two desks sat facing each other, pressed up against the wall on the side; behind Rhett, there was an open space and one of the bookshelves and a window next to it near Link, behind his back. The sunlight that streamed from the window was just dulled enough by the gossamer curtains so as not to be warm, but still cast a good amount of light onto their desks, which, pressed against one another, seemed like one desk.

****

“This is a good set-up,” Rhett commented, and Link couldn’t help but agree.

****

“Yeah… yeah, it’s great.”

****

Rhett smiled at him, and then dug into his bag to extricate his burger.

****

Link grinned, seeing him do it with such enthusiasm. “I got you some more of those,” he said, “They’re downstairs, in our part of the fridge.” Each couple from the block of flats had got their part of the enormous fridge down in the kitchen — Rhett and Link got two shelves in the fridge, and a shelf in the freezer.

****

“Really?” Rhett asked happily, and Link nodded. Rhett’s cheeks bunched up in a smug smile. “Best boyfriend ever,” he teased.

****

“Ha ha.” Link shook his head and got to unpacking his own burger. “Right…” he added weakly, looking away. Rhett didn’t say anything, but Link could feel him looking.

****

Rhett’s long legs reached all the way under the desk and almost up to under Link’s own chair, and one of them was now pressing against the leg Link had stretched under the desk. It was uncomfortable, sure, but Link didn’t feel like complaining. He relaxed his leg against Rhett’s, and a peculiar thought went through his mind — he would have to get used to this. What was his was Rhett’s, and so it was now with personal space. Link dreaded the moment he’d have to put his acceptance of that to the test and share a bed with Rhett.

****

Rhett finished his burger in mere seconds, and his leg was retracted sooner than it took Link to get used to it.

****

Once he was up, and Link’s surprised eyes were on him, Rhett spoke: “Gonna go say hi to the neighbors. You wanna come?”

****

Link shrugged, shaking his head a little with a grimace. “Ehhh—”

****

“Got it,” Rhett said and grinned, and before Link had a chance to react, Rhett was on his way out the door. Near the door, he paused, and Link thought he was being given a second chance to respond. But Rhett seemed to know what his answer was going to be — no particular desire to go, but also, no particular desire to say he didn’t want to go out loud. The desire to voice how much tomorrow’s alleged 5-minute, surprise English exam was eating him up inside was even smaller.

****

“Wait,” Rhett then said, “aren’t you supposed to, like, bring something over when you’re meeting new neighbors?”

****

“Get them some Snickers,” Link said, mouth full of burger, and Rhett considered a moment before nodding. Absently, he crossed the room and was back in front of Link in a second. He pulled the drawers of his desk open and pulled out some candy, a bar for each of the neighbors. He pushed the drawers closed with the back of his hands, and then leaned onto the desk to look at Link.

****

“See ya later, love,” Rhett said, so nonchalant it nearly made Link’s food fall out of his open mouth. He stared after Rhett, who waited for no response before making his way back across the room and out the door. Link swallowed his bite and bit back into his burger, his cheeks burning.

****

-

****

Link struggled through his reading, thoughts of Rhett and his weirdness coming back to his mind whenever he tried to focus. He’d just about stopped thinking about him when Rhett burst through the door, elated as he bounded up to Link’s desk and half-sat on it.

****

“How was it?” Link asked, smiling up at him. His personal space had apparently been nullified as far as Rhett was concerned, and he found himself not overly minding it.

****

“So good,” Rhett said. “I go downstairs, and this bombshell is sitting down in one of the chairs in the lounge, reading some book. That one —” Rhett pointed to the book sitting next to him on the desk, the one Link had just been reading. The girl had probably gotten wind of the rumors about the test, and was now revising as well. “And I sit next to her and say hi, and she looks up with these gorgeous eyes, man, you should have seen it. She’s got these nice shoulders, black hair, blue eyes, and you can see she’s real nice. Kinda looks like she could have been your sister,” Rhett added, and looked for a moment lost in thought. “Anyway, I tell her who I am, and she smiles, oh man. Tells me her name is Angel, and I’m like, ain’t that right.”

****

Link nodded, looking away a little now. Hearing Rhett speak about this girl in such a nice way — it — it — well. Link would definitely be going down to see for himself.

****

“And then she started telling me about Angelo — her boyfriend — who was out somewhere, who’s like some big-shot, even got one of those cell-phones and all, and I’m like, Angel-o?” Rhett scrunched up his face. “And she giggles and tells me that that’s not his real name, they’ve just been together so long that people started calling him after her.” Rhett smirked, pausing as if getting ready to deliver a million-dollar line. “Then I said, right, so I guess we can see who’s the real big-shot here. Get it,” Rhett said, poking Link in the shoulder, “‘cause he has her name.”

****

Link nodded, forcing a smile, and Rhett went on. “She laughed again and said I remind her of him,” Rhett grimaced again, as if this was not something he was pleased with, even if he’d never met the guy. “Anyway. We spoke a little more, I told her about us, I mean, about you, and stuff…”

****

Rhett trailed off embarrassedly, but Link wished he hadn’t. He briefly thought about asking Rhett to tell him, in as much detail as he could, to relay to him all that he’d told Angel. The thought of Rhett telling someone about him as his boyfriend made him feel warmer inside than he was comfortable with.

****

“Should I start calling you Link-o?” Link joked, to dissolve the newfound tension.

****

Rhett laughed, throwing his head back and clapping his hand on his thigh. “Sure, you can do that,” he said when the laughter subsided,  _ “Rhetto.” _

****

Link smiled, and Rhett mirrored it, and Link was just about to ask Rhett to go on and tell him about safer things, like the other couple he’d met, when Rhett spoke again.

****

“Oh, and Angel told me they were all going to go out, to some party I guess. Didn’t wanna tell her anything until I asked you if you wanted to go.”

****

Link grimaced and looked down at his study materials. Thinking about another excuse would have been hard, and anyway, honesty was, Link figured, the best policy. 

****

“Should stay in and study,” he said weakly, certain Rhett would laugh it off. “You should go, though,” Link added quickly, and Rhett nodded.

****

Rhett sat on the desk as Link cracked his book open, and didn’t move as Link went through the first few lines of one of the E. E. Cummings poems he had to read by tomorrow. After a few minutes, evidently bored of watching Link study, Rhett got up, got himself some clean underpants and made his way to the bathroom to draw himself a bath. He ambled around the room cheerily until the tub was full, and Link watched him enter the bathroom and not close the door. Maybe it was a mistake on Rhett’s part, but still, Link made no move to fix it, to get up and close it himself. He watched the small amount of steam billowing from the slight crack of the open door, watched the light coming from the crack dance as Rhett moved about the bathroom, until the light settled and the footsteps and then the splashing of water ceased, and Link knew that Rhett had settled into the hot water. 

****

If Rhett were really his boyfriend, he would have been forced to share that bath with him. No, not forced — Link would have wanted to. Maybe Rhett would have left the door ajar purposefully, expecting Link to come in after him. Which would have been… unacceptable. Obviously. 

****

Link’s heart and brain suddenly stopped working for a second as he remembered that Rhett was naked inside. Link had seen it a few times, with how much Rhett liked walking around their old dorm naked, roaming free between discarding his dirty boxers and putting on clean ones. Somewhere, sometimes, always in his and Gregg’s periphery as they immediately turned their eyes away, was a naked Rhett. But this was different. If he were Rhett’s boyfriend, he would have been in there, watching with intent as Rhett undressed, his heart racing as Rhett took his clothes off. Maybe he would have reached over, slowly pulled Rhett’s clothes off himself, before they pressed up against each other and Rhett pulled him into the tub with him.

****

Link dug himself back into his work, as an attempt to calm his racing heart.

****

_ Unacceptable. _

****

His ears still strained to hear any sounds, maybe embarrassing ones, coming from the bathroom, but everything was quiet. Maybe he couldn’t hear it, maybe Rhett wasn’t doing anything. Was Rhett thinking about him as much as he was thinking about Rhett? No, Link thought, and if he did, he probably thought nothing of it. Everyone was a victim of weird, intrusive thoughts, and Link wouldn’t let those get the better of him.

****

When Rhett exited the bathroom a while later, dressed in his boxers, steam coming of his undoubtedly warm, soft-looking skin, Link kept his head down, only letting himself look up from his book when Rhett turned his back to look for something to wear. When Rhett came up with just a t-shirt he used to wear to bed back when he was shy of appearing near-nude in front of Gregg and Link, Link revealed that he’d been looking at him and blurted out:

****

“You’re wearing that to the party?” he asked, and Rhett turned around, confused, but still managing to sound like a concerned mother hen.

****

“What? No,” Rhett said, cracking a smile as he pulled the t-shirt on.

****

“You — what?”

****

Rhett kept the smile on as he walked toward Link’s desk and leaned against it again. “I’m not going out,” he said softly. “What would people say if I went out without the boyfriend?” 

****

Link’s mouth dropped open and he closed it and then opened it again like a fish, and when he didn’t come up with a reply that wasn’t a goofy “That’s really stupid… but also nice of you,” or something equally as embarrassing that would reveal just how touched he was, Rhett went on.

****

“Gonna stay in and help you study,” Rhett said simply. And not that it meant anything, but Link suddenly realised why people might want to date Rhett. 

****

Link looked up at him with a smile, and Rhett chuckled, ducking his head a little. “Well don’t look so surprised…” Rhett mumbled, and Link shook his head.

****

“No, no,” Link said immediately, voice tight and small and  _ weird, _ “I mean… thanks. You don’t have to.”

****

“I know,” Rhett said, moving so he could sit behind his own desk. Once he was facing Link, he went on, “But I want to. Besides, what kind of boyfriend would I be—” 

****

“Stop saying that,” Link said, averting his eyes, but he was smiling, and all Rhett did in response was smirk and pick up Link’s workbook to start asking him the practise questions. 

****

Rhett’s legs settled next to Link’s again, and Link easily pressed his own up against them as they talked — Rhett asking the questions, and Link not getting a single one wrong.

****

When the lights they had flicked on became a strain on their eyes and Link was feeling certain that there was no way he would get less than a perfect grade if the next day’s test really did happen, Rhett snapped the workbook shut and leaned back in his chair.

****

“Let’s go to bed,” Rhett said softly, and the sentence Link had been dreading all day didn’t sound that bad at all, in the end. Maybe he was just too tired to properly think it over, but he couldn’t wait for them to finally lie down.

****

Link nodded, and Rhett gave him a smile. Rhett walked over to the bed and settled on top of the covers, closing his eyes with a pleased groan once his head was on the pillow. 

****

Link went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face, and then he stripped down to just his boxers. He couldn’t think of a reason why Rhett would be wearing a t-shirt now, unless he was shy, which didn’t really go hand-in-hand with how he’d been acting while they were living back in the dorm with Gregg.

****

Link decided he wouldn’t think about it too hard, ignoring the voice in his head that said that’s all he’d been doing all day. He got back into the room and lay down in bed on his side, and realized he didn’t know why he’d been so afraid of this — there was enough space between them in the bed for an entire person to fit. There was enough space for Link to move freely toward the middle of the bed, and then Rhett moved, too.

****

Link turned his head to look at him, and found Rhett already looking at him.

****

“Thank you for helping me,” Link whispered sleepily.

****

Rhett smiled softly and closed his eyes, “Welcome…” he trailed off, and Link almost laughed at how fast he’d fallen asleep. Rhett never went out that fast, and Link figured he really tired him out. He looked so nice, relaxed like that. And he’d been so nice to Link — who had to catch himself before he reached over and touched Rhett’s cheek with a tentative hand. He dropped the hand between them on the bed, and then lifted it again so that he could roll over onto his back, to stare at the ceiling until he fell asleep.

****

Lying next to Rhett was good, Link thought. Comfortable. Warm, even if they were lying on top of the covers.

****

-

****

Link had never had a better night’s sleep, or a worse wake-up in the morning.

****

He woke, embarrassingly, with half of his body draped over Rhett’s. The worst thing was that Rhett woke before him, which Link knew because Rhett welcomed him with a smug “Good morning,” as soon as Link stirred, even before he opened his eyes.

****

“I guess my stupid sleeping self thinks we’re really dating, or something,” Link said groggily, commenting on the situation immediately, trying for disdain.

****

“So your subconsciousness is in love with me, what’s new?” Rhett teased, and Link wasted no time in extricating himself from Rhett. 

****

“Wait,” Rhett said as Link moved his hand from where it was draped over Rhett’s chest. Link’s eyes were now open, and boring into Rhett’s own.

****

“W-what?” Link uttered indignantly, the closeness making him feel weird, the warmth of Rhett’s shirt under his hand distracting him. The leg that he’d thrown over one of Rhett’s, the leg that now lay between Rhett’s legs twitched, but he didn’t move. Link thanked the heavens that he hadn’t woken up with morning wood.

****

“I’ve been thinking about this whole boyfriend thing.”

****

Link’s heart jammed into his throat and he struggled to utter, “hm?” because his overactive mind immediately jumped to  _ Rhett wants to make it real _ . As if Link would ever allow that…

****

“I think that, if we’re gonna keep this place and all that, we gotta start acting like we’re… y’know, a little more.”

****

Link shook his head, narrowing his eyes in confusion. “You mean… you wanna like? Fake loud  _ noises _ and—” 

****

“No!” Rhett said immediately, probably a bit louder than he’d intended to. He moved out from under Link as if he were startled, blushing profusely.

****

Link flushed a little himself as his own suggestion really settled in with him. He moved further away, looking down as Rhett rambled.

****

“No, I mean… I was just gonna ask if,” Rhett took a deep breath. “Um… God. Can I hold your hand on the way to class?”

****

Link looked up at him, face heating up even more.

****

“I think that would really sell the idea of us being together,” Rhett added.

****

Link considered it for a bit before nodding. To heck with it — it couldn’t be  _ that _ bad.

****

-

****

“You have the sweatiest hands in the universe,” Link said, brow furrowed, darkening his expression. Rhett, who Link expected to laugh this off, only took his hand out of Link’s to wipe it on his pants before taking Link’s hand in his own again. Rhett’s hands weren’t only sweaty, Link had to admit, they were warm and soft and big and strong—

****

A girl passed them, and muttered, “Look at the two of them,” mockingly to her boyfriend, under her breath. Link had to use the hand he was holding to rein Rhett in before he went off on her.

****

People looked, sure. Some even stared. But neither of them let on that it bothered them — maybe Rhett really didn’t mind, Link thought, he was better at keeping this affectionate stuff from turning weird anyway.

****

When they made it to Rhett’s classroom, where Link was to leave him, they stood and stared at each other, both visibly nervous, neither letting the other’s hand go.

****

“So—” Link began.

****

“I guess I’ll, uh,” Rhett interrupted.

****

“See you later?” Link squeezed out.

****

“Babe,” Rhett added — for the passers-by, Link reckoned.

****

“Yes, uh,” Link said, looking around. “Love.”

****

Link winced, and what he did next was a split-second decision. He quickly stood up on his tiptoes to peck Rhett on the cheek. He moved away even more quickly, letting go of Rhett’s hand as he stepped back. Without another word, he turned around and made his way down the hall, feeling like his whole body was burning. Touching a hand to his tingling lips, he looked over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of Rhett, who was standing there, looking after Link, dumbfounded. Link sped up down the hall.

****

The butterflies in his stomach stayed there until lunch.

****

-

****

With lunch came, finally, the sight of the most perfect girl in the world. She was really like a balm for his sore eyes. However, while his eyes might have been having a field day, the rest of his body, tense in his anticipation of Rhett coming and the decision that this would be t _ he day _ Link finally approaches  _ her,  _ felt like it was on fire. 

****

Rhett finally arrived, and with him, the inevitable awkwardness.

****

“Hey,” Rhett said, soft as ever, and sat weirdly close to Link. “Why aren’t you eating anything?”

****

Link shrugged. The real reason was that he was too nervous to eat, but he didn’t feel like telling Rhett that.

****

“Um,” Rhett tried, pushing his tray towards Link a little, “look at what I have here. Dino nuggets, mashed potatoes, jell-o, and this fly I caught just now, under this cup.”

****

Link’s lips turned up at the corners, which made Rhett smile too. It meant Rhett had succeeded in making Link feel better — as if there was ever a time he didn’t.

****

“You think it’s time for another taste test?” Rhett asked gently, and Link looked at him before shaking his head.

****

“Time for something else,” Link muttered, biting his lip as Rhett watched him raptly. Link put one of his hands up on the table, squeezed into a determined fist. It all felt very dramatic, which was maybe why, when Rhett put his hand up next to Link’s and then moved it to tangle his fingers with Link’s, Link let him. He needed Rhett right now.

****

Squeezing Rhett’s hand a little, looking down at their hands, Link spoke, “I gotta go speak to her.”

****

“Let’s go, then,” Rhett said supportively, and when Link looked up, there was a small smile on his lips. Link nodded and, taking a deep breath, stood up. He let go of Rhett’s hand so Rhett could stand up more comfortably, because he’d gotten the impression that Rhett was definitely coming with him.

****

“You want me to come?” Rhett asked, apparently interpreting Link letting go of his hand as Link wanting him to stay.

****

“Uh,  _ yeah?” _ Link asked incredulously. He thought it would have gone without saying, but evidently not. Spelling it out for Rhett was a little annoying, like admitting out loud that he was too weak to do it without him.

****

“Okay,” Rhett said and got up, his tone not mocking, but warm and reassuring. Rhett picked his tray up and let Link walk in front of him, which Link gratefully accepted. He took a deep breath and plastered a smile on his face, and when they rounded her table, she looked up and smiled.

****

“Hi,” Link said, feeling a tiny bit winded. He was totally out of his league.

****

“Hey,” she greeted back, a wide smile showing off her perfect teeth. Link had thought that his knees would wobble at the sight and that Rhett would have to scoop his unconscious self up from the floor, but he felt surprisingly composed. Sometimes he felt more flustered speaking to Rhett.

****

The fact that he felt composed didn’t mean he suddenly had a filter for the stupid things coming out of his mouth, though. The propensity for coming up with something stupid was only mitigated by the sudden feeling of Rhett’s hand on the small of his back, pressing a reassuring warmth there and making Link tense up.

****

“We really like your boots,” Link blurted out, making Miss Perfect giggle.

****

“Aw, you do?” she asked, sticking one leg out from under the table to show off her knee-high, white boot. “I’m not one for stereotypes, but I’m glad you guys approve! Means they must be good,” she teased, still giggling a little. The sound was pretty nice.

****

“Yeah, they’re real nice,” Link said, not quite getting her comment. Rhett’s hand snuck around his waist, and he pulled him a bit closer. This made Link look up at him with narrowed, confused eyes, but Rhett didn’t seem to notice Link’s befuddlement.

****

“Thank you,” Miss Perfect said, turning Link’s attention back to her, and gestured to the bench across from her. “Please, guys, siddown!”

****

Link nodded and beamed at her, trying not to take notice of Rhett, who, when they sat down, squeezed up to him, his hand still on Link’s waist (making it only a little hard for Link to breathe).

****

“Thanks,” Link said, breathless, “I’m Link. And uh,” he turned to Rhett with a smile, letting him introduce himself.

****

“Rhett,” Rhett said, raising one hand as if in greeting.

****

Miss Perfect smiled wide at the both of them, and Link felt proud for having come over.

****

“I’m Jill,” she said, placing a hand on her sternum.

****

“Nice to meet you, Jill,” Link said.

****

Rhett followed up with a, “yeah. Really nice to meet ya.”

****

“Nice to meet you too!” she said happily, and leaned forward with her elbows on the table. She put her hair behind her ear and spoke conspiratorially, “Really, really nice to meet you. To be honest, I don’t have many friends here. I don’t have any guy friends at all, not real ones. Not ones who haven’t tried… well. I know you guys wouldn’t do that.”

****

“Nah, ‘course not,” Rhett said, and Link nodded in agreement, though, once again, he wasn’t sure what she was talking about.

****

“That’s nice,” Jill said, and the meaning of her words was suddenly, slowly dawning on Link. Guy friends who’ve tried to — the blank had to have been filled with ‘fuck me’. Link thought about that, about bringing her over to their apartment, messing around with her on their bed, Rhett, somehow, somewhere in his periphery. He thought about Rhett watching him fuck her, and a shiver ran down his spine. He moved away from Rhett a little, making Rhett drop his hand from where it was resting on Link’s lower back.

****

Link felt bad for thinking such thoughts about a girl he’d known for a few minutes, and immediately stopped it. Rhett, however, he’d known Rhett all his life…

****

“You guys make such a nice couple,” Jill said somewhere in what sounded like the back of Link’s mind. At the front of it were still the vile thoughts, thoughts of him and Rhett, maybe a girl in between, maybe not. If Rhett saw him with another girl — if Rhett were his boyfriend, would he like it, seeing Link with a girl? Or would he be jealous?

****

Rhett’s response snapped Link out of his thoughts. “Thank you,” Rhett said, leaning his head closer to Link’s. “This guy’s my world.”

****

Miss Perfect — Jill — cooed at the words, tilting her head as she regarded them.

****

“Ah, love you too, bo,” Link stuttered out, looking up at Rhett minutely and moving away a little.

****

“So cute how you call him your beau,” Jill said, smiling wide, “sounds old school and really romantic.”

****

Link nodded and shrugged, again, not quite grasping the meaning of her comment. Maybe old school meant that she had used it as a child, too, to refer to one of her friends.

****

Rhett had said something, a thank-you or something similar and then, suddenly, Link felt Rhett’s lips on his cheek — just the briefest, gentlest touch, after Rhett was pulling away.

****

Link looked over at him, hoping to convey with his expression just how stupefied he was.

“I’m sorry, Jill,” Link’s mouth ran on it’s own, still looking over at Rhett, he moved away from him, “I just remembered there’s something I need to do so I’ll uh — we’ll see ya later.” With a final glance at her, Link stood up, his face burning. As soon as he was up, Rhett shot up too, and Link could see that he was completely red in the face. Link walked away from the table, not looking back as he crossed the lawn that surrounded the patio, running across it back to their room. Rhett followed him, leaving Miss Perfect without a goodbye, leaving the food on his tray untouched.

****

Link didn’t have any more classes for the day, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Rhett did. Still, Rhett was racing after him, walking a few paces behind him and calling his name. He didn’t purposely catch up with him until Link made it to their room — a dead end. Link threw his bag next to the bed and walked to the furthest corner of the room, to the window behind his desk, before pacing back to the desk and leaning against it when he heard Rhett open the door forcefully and then let it swing shut.

****

“Link,” he called again, as if at a loss for any other word.

****

“What?” Link spat, not looking up from his spot by the door.

****

“Bo, what’s—” he began gently, slowly walking up to Link, “What did I—” 

****

“What did you do? What did you do?!” Link cried, making Rhett flinch when he finally looked up at him. “You really don’t freaking see it? If you want me to have a chance with her, you could, I dunno, act less fake in love with me in front of her? Seriously, why aren’t you like that all the time?” Link yelled, and then paused briefly. “I mean,” he said, shaking his head, “I don’t mean that. I mean, why are you  _ only  _ like that in front of her? Is it on purpose? Do you want her after all? ‘Cause she’s just gonna think you’re as gay as me, you know. Your logic,” Link said, calming down a little, “well. It’s a little  _ flawed.” _

****

Rhett scoffed, moving away. “What are you even—” he caught onto the stupidest part of Link’s rambles and decided to address it. “You want me to be gay with you all the time?” he asked, and there was no trace of anger in his voice — he sounded like he was merely looking to satisfy his curiosity. It left Link speechless as he stared up at Rhett with wide eyes and a furrowed brow.

****

The seeming sincerity of the question took Link aback, and he had no time to actually think of it before his mouth was forming a shocked, “No.”

****

“Fine,” Rhett said, resigned, stepping away. “I won’t.” Rhett picked up his windbreaker and his bag and walked to the door, and Link tensed up, standing up a bit straighter. All that he could think of was making Rhett stay, but he didn’t let himself ask that of Rhett.

****

“You don’t mean… you’re not gonna break up with me, are you?” Link asked weakly, because there was the room to consider, the bath, the— 

****

Rhett looked at him once before walking out of the room, and Link fell back against the desk. Looking ahead at their bed, he felt tears prickle the corners of his eyes.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for the support and i hope you like this! 
> 
> this chapter will be posted as two chapters because it totally got out of hand, and i just couldn't stand to cut some parts out to shorten it. :~)

  
Storming out of their room — sure, Rhett had been allowed to do that. Storming out of the building — well, alright, but not before he nearly collided with a sleepy-looking guy on the staircase.

****

Rhett had been lost in thoughts of forgiveness and the lack of it — in other words, thoughts about how he was so mad that he’d break not only this imaginary relationship but his friendship with Link off entirely. But, even to himself, even through the haze of hurt and the way his volatile temper had been tested, Rhett had to admit that the idea was laughable. No matter how much he, at certain times, swore Link had done something unforgivable, Rhett knew he’d always forgive him. But there’d be no more thoughts of any experimentations and the like. They were going to make this easy — he was going to make this easy — by putting any efforts they’d been making to prove their love behind them. That way, not only would there be less tension between them, but Rhett could also have a chance to clear his mind.

****

“Hey,” the guy said softly, pulling Rhett out of his thoughts, moving out of the way to let Rhett down the stairs. Rhett paused on the top step, looking up at the guy. And yeah, up didn’t happen often for Rhett McLaughlin, which made him do a double-take in the first place. Somehow this guy seemed to have an inch on him. With the way his hair was styled, maybe two extra inches. But his goofy pompadour didn’t count, Rhett decided. 

****

“Hey,” Rhett said carefully, leaning against the wall when the guy smiled and spoke:

****

“I don’t think we’ve met. Have we?”

****

Once the words were out of his mouth, he moved past Rhett smoothly and continued down the stairs, making Rhett scramble to follow him.

****

“No,” Rhett said dumbly, walking behind him, trying to meet the guy’s gaze by looking down, over his shoulder. But every time Rhett thought he could catch a glimpse of his conversational partner and make the situation a bit more normal, the guy moved forward, his eyes on the coffeemaker.

****

“I’m Brax,” the guy said groggily, finally turning his head minutely to meet Rhett’s eyes once his fingers touched the coffeemaker. “Gotta have my morning coffee,” Brax muttered lightly, absently, in a drawn-out, sedated sounding voice. He was from out west, Rhett mused, with an accent like that — most likely California. Brax tapped the coffee maker and it whizzed to life, and he gave Rhett an apologetic-looking smile, as if to elaborate that he was sorry to be one of those self-proclaimed morning grumps who just can’t function without their coffee!

****

Rhett observed him make his coffee, noting the lack of milk and the abundance of sugar. 

****

Through his observation of not just the coffee but the man it was for, Rhett silently noted that Brax wasn’t bad looking. Like, not  _ too _ good looking, but not horrendous. The pomp Rhett had noticed earlier was dark brown, soft and fluffy looking, while still having some of that attractive sheen. The guy also had a beard, a real, thick one which was neatly trimmed just underneath his jaw, sharpening it. It may or may not have made Rhett reach up and touch a wistful hand to his not-nearly-prickly-enough chin.

****

Brax’s eyes were green, a green seemingly sharper than Rhett’s, not as grey, not as dimmed. His skin was tanned and he was wearing a green tank-top that contrasted with it nicely while still matching his eyes wonderfully. As bottoms, Brax wore, well, just that. Just a pair of underwear. Rhett didn’t let his gaze linger there for too long, not at the way Brax’s long, tanned legs stretched from under his black briefs. Definitely not as muscular as his own looked. His back was broad, his arms long and muscular, his posture immaculate. As Rhett took more of his housemate’s appearance in, he couldn’t really chose a word that would better describe his physique than  _ ripped _ .

****

Rhett found himself staring at Brax as he hummed a tune unfamiliar to Rhett, and then as he grinned delightedly once he had both of his hands wrapped around a hot cup of coffee. Brax took a long sip from his cup, regarding Rhett with narrowed, smiling eyes.

****

“H-how old are you?” Rhett muttered, embarrassment for stuttering immediately setting in, cheeks instantly scalding. For it to be the first question Rhett asks was probably weird as heck, but he had to ask it — the guy looked like he was in his late twenties, at the very least.

****

“I’m a senior. Just turned twenty-two.”

****

How could someone so close to Rhett’s age look that well put together? The guy looked like a model, and then some.

****

“Oh. You look older,” Rhett blurted, making Brax laugh. His laugh, like his voice, was slow to come and long-lasting. His slow demeanour didn’t match his appearance, Rhett thought, but in a sort of good way. He seemed as relaxed as could be, and his voice wasn’t lazy so much as it was content.

****

Still chuckling, Brax asked, “how old are you, ah — I’m sorry, I didn’t—”

****

“Rhett,” Rhett filled in quickly. “I’m nineteen.”

****

“Rhett.” Brax nodded slowly, then turned away to open one of the cupboards. Bending over like that in front of Rhett as he looked for something on the bottom shelf was really inappropriate. Having another guy’s junk that close to his own junk was weird as heck. Well, if the guy wasn’t Link, ‘cause there were times when they had to stand close together, and that one time they shared a sleeping bag when camp — Rhett shook his head. None of it mattered. What Rhett meant is that it was weird if it was someone he’d just met. Clearly.

****

Rhett turned away, thinking he should leave, but then Brax moved to open another cupboard and Rhett found himself staying in his spot, shuffling a bit until he was facing Brax again. And why did Rhett feel like he’d been chatting a girl up at a party? Like she was leaving, now, and he wanted some more of her attention?

****

“Where’d she put those quinoa balls…” Brax muttered, closing the cupboard to open the fridge.

****

“W-who’s she?” Rhett asked in an urgent attempt to restore conversation, giving Brax a toothy smile when he looked back at him. Rhett could have asked about the quinoa balls, since he had no idea what those were either, but he felt like asking that would result in a more boring answer.

****

“Oh,” Brax chuckled, “ _ she _ is my life partner, Miri.”

****

“Life partner?” Rhett asked, leaning against the counter as Brax spoke.

****

“Yes,” Brax nodded, “it’s like we’re married, but not quite.”

****

“Hmm,” Rhett hummed thoughtfully, folding his arms and looking at Brax, who grinned at him.

****

“Sorry we didn’t come and say hi yet. We couldn’t agree on some stuff moving in, and ended up leaving half our stuff unpacked yesterday when we, uh, went to sleep…” Brax trailed off with an absent, blissed-out expression on his face.

****

Rhett knew what it meant, and he didn’t need to hear it.

****

“No, it’s okay,” Rhett rushed to reassure him, “You guys take it easy. Visit whenever.” It’s not like Link and him would not be ready, not like they’d be in a compromising, inappropriate situation, Rhett decided, his cheeks steadily reddening.

****

Brax nodded, and took another sip of his coffee before speaking, “I haven’t met your lovely partner yet, though Miri told me all about you. I gotta admit I was a bit sceptical, since I don’t know how a relationship like that would work. Like, who’s the girl, you know what I mean?”

****

Rhett grimaced. “Uhh. We’re both guys…”

****

“Right,” Brax said, laughing like Rhett was being very amusing. “Anyway,” the guy jumped onto something else so fast Rhett could barely keep up with it, “Miri loves it. She says it’s like, all the rage back in L.A. Literally.”

****

“Literally,” Rhett confirmed, and if he was mocking Brax’s Cali pronunciation of the word, it was mostly inadvertent.

****

“Anyway, we’re cool with you guys,” Brax said, grinning, and Rhett grinned back, if a bit uneasily. Why the heck was everyone so weird about gay guys? Rhett might have not had the most accepting attitude before, but he gladly kept it to himself. Now that he was gay — that is, now that everyone saw him as such — every other person he met decided they needed to let Rhett know if he had their blessing or not.

****

“You okay, man?” Brax asked, apparently noticing Rhett’s shift in mood.

****

Rhett pondered over the question, and decided to make the most of it. “No, not really.”

****

Brax looked at him expectantly, and Rhett sighed, raising a hand to scratch the back of his head before speaking. “Link and I — my partner, uh, boyfriend, and I — we had a fight.”

****

“Oh, man. What happened?”

****

Rhett struggled not to berate himself for bringing it up and instead racked his brain for a reason that wouldn’t reveal the true nature of their relationship.

****

“He keeps flirting with this girl,” Rhett said, bowing his head in defeat. It’s not like it wasn’t true, but there was no reason for it to sting as much as it did.

****

To Brax, who thought that Rhett was in love with Link, the stinging feeling would probably be justified by just that, by the fact that no one likes to see the person they’re in love with flirting with someone else.

****

“Uh-oh,” Brax said, brows raising comically high. “What kind of stuff does he tell her?” he asked curiously, surprising Rhett with the immediate response.

****

Rhett sought for words in his head. What had Link said to her? Anything Rhett could remember would just make him sound lame if he recounted it, because it was the most ordinary stuff. Brax would probably laugh at him.

****

“Well,” Rhett said, tilting his head to the side and grimacing as he combed through his thoughts for something, anything. “It’s not the things he says  _ to _ her, more like… the things he says  _ about _ her.”

****

“Hmm. Yes?”

****

“Like, she’s beautiful and smart and perfect and…” Rhett trailed off, grumbling.

****

“Do you think he loves her?”

****

Brax’ question surprised him, introducing the concept of love between her and Link to Rhett’s mind. For all his anxiety about the situation, Rhett hadn’t even considered the possibility that Link might actually  _ love _ Jill.

****

When he spoke, Rhett’s voice was weak, his throat felt scratchy. “Maybe,” he mumbled, and decided he was fine with the character taking over — maybe he could let this fake Rhett let some of the hurt go for him.

****

It’s not like the feelings were gay, not like this fake side of Rhett was actually in love — but it was jealous. What if Link up and left him, or worse, moved her into the apartment to live with them? That had, sort of, been the plan. That’s what he’d told Link the plan was. But in truth, he’d just wanted the two of them to try living together, to stay up or sleep in as long as they liked with everything they needed in that small space, just hanging out like true best friends did.

****

“Rhett,” Brax said softly, putting a hand on Rhett’s shoulder. “If you really doubt that he might have feelings for someone else, it’s not the end of the world.”

****

“Wh — I’m sorry, what?” Rhett asked, clearing his throat before looking up at Brax. For Brax to invalidate Rhett’s fake love like this, the nerve —

****

“I know it’s a cliche, but sometimes a cliche is what you need. If you love him, let him go. If he comes back, you will know that he is yours.”

****

Rhett knew the alternative, but it was completely nonsensical. “And if not?”

****

“You move on,” Brax said simply. His hand was still on Rhett’s shoulder, and Rhett tensed underneath it.

****

The suggestion sounded stupid, right to its core. What if Link didn’t come back? What would Rhett do then? Did Rhett not love him enough if he couldn’t help but think of this? Was he too selfish if he thought his life without Link wouldn’t be a complete one?

****

Banishing thoughts of Link’s departure from his head, Rhett decided to live in the now. And right now, Link wasn’t leaving — or he wouldn’t, if Rhett could fix what his outburst had caused. But a pep-talk from a buff guy wasn’t all that took for Rhett to change his mind, and he was still angry at Link. He still felt betrayed, because Link wasn’t sticking to the plan. Or he was, but in the wrong way. He didn’t have any business being nice to Jill, not until Rhett decided she was trustworthy, not until Rhett decided she was good enough for Link. And Rhett couldn’t fathom Link’s outburst in the first place, it wasn’t like Rhett was doing anything wrong. A few true words here and there — true, of course, to their fake selves — and a kiss which was exactly like the one Link had given him. It was no big deal, and if Link thought it was, well, he was the one who started it.

****

“He’s mad at me now. Thinks I want to break up,” Rhett said slowly, and Brax nodded solemnly.

****

“That I can help you with. Short-term fixes are like a specialty for Miri and me.”

****

“Short term…?”

****

“You guys will make up soon, trust me. Just tell him how he made you feel.”

****

Rhett didn’t think that that was possible, and even if he was unsure why, he wasn’t about to rip it apart in his mind. Not immediately.

****

“Now, I gotta go ask Miri where she’s put those quinoa balls,” Brax said, grinning as he squeezed Rhett’s shoulder.

****

Rhett let out a soft breath. “Ah-huh,” he confirmed, his eyes on Brax’s hand. Brax humph’d happily and moved his hand, turning away to go back upstairs.

****

“And Rhett,” Brax called in that smooth, chill baritone.

****

“Yeah?” Rhett asked, spinning around immediately.

****

“The make-up sex is unimaginable.”

****

—

****

Rhett had left the building as flustered as ever. Curse Brax, and his wild ideas of Rhett apologising, Link accepting it and falling into Rhett’s arms, Rhett leading him over to the bed…

****

—

****

The bed would stay cold for the evening — figuratively, at least, with both of them still occupying it, but lying on opposite sides, turned away from one another. A chasm that couldn’t be bridged had opened between them, the cold seeping out of it.

****

Rhett had gone out, got something to eat and attended his classes for the day, his body present but his mind elsewhere. When he came home, Link was sitting behind the desk, in Rhett’s spot. Because of this, Rhett could only see the back of him, but he figured Link was reading something. When Rhett closed the door, Link immediately brought his hands up to his face and rubbed it for a bit before exhaling and quickly standing up.

****

“Where’ve you been?” Link asked, sounding defeated, not quite meeting Rhett’s gaze.

****

Guilt bubbled up within Rhett, but it manifested itself as anger. “Nowhere,” he hadn’t meant to snap, but alas. Link frowned.

****

“Whatever,” Link muttered, going to rummage through the closet.

****

“Whatever,” Rhett mimicked, dumping his bag into the corner of the room. He paced back and forth on his side of the room as he went about undressing and putting on his sleeping shirt.

****

He was a bit harsh on his teeth when he brushed them, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt. He washed his face and patted it dry, then spent a few moments looking at himself in the mirror.

****

He and Link never fought like this. It must have been this fucked-up arrangement that had brought them here, that had made it seem like a bigger deal than it was. Rhett thought that it must have been because couples loved harder than friends did, and they also fought harder.

****

When he came back to the room, Link was already in bed. Curled up on his side, on top of the covers.

****

Link had managed to find some pyjamas for himself even though Rhett hadn’t seen him wear those in literal years.

****

Rhett lay on his back and sighed, wondering if they were going to go to bed without a good-night.

****

“Link,” Rhett called softly, turning his head to look at the back of Link’s. Link’s breathing was too quick for him to be asleep, Rhett thought, but then again, what did he know? He didn’t know much. Obviously not when to take a step back and apologise, or to control his feelings. He didn’t even know what he was feeling.

****

With a resigned sigh, Rhett looked back up toward the ceiling, and willed himself to sleep. The emotional turmoil managed, at least, to tire him out, and he was asleep within minutes.

****

—

****

When Rhett woke up, Link was already gone. He avoided Rhett and their apartment like the plague, and soon Rhett started to mirror his behaviour, coming home only to sleep.

****

So it was on Tuesday — when Rhett woke up with Link tucked up next to him, and spent half an hour lying there breathlessly before Link woke up and left — and Wednesday too. Except Wednesday night, when Rhett called, Link answered. Tucked up in bed with Link under the covers and Rhett on top of them, the moonlight seeping through the window but still not letting them see each other, Rhett spoke.

****

“Link, man, you gotta talk to me,” Rhett pleaded, turning to look at Link’s back. Link shifted slightly, but didn’t turn to look at Rhett.

****

“No,” he said softly, but determinedly. “Not if you’re just gonna tell me you don’t want…” Link trailed off.

****

Rhett’s ears prickled at Link’s words. That he didn’t want what? Link?

****

“Link—“

****

“Not yet,” Link said, and Rhett let it go.

****

—

****

With Thursday came a shift in overall mood.

****

Link woke up with his head on Rhett’s shoulder and both of his arms around Rhett’s arm, and though Rhett could see that he was embarrassed, that was all there was to it.

****

Link gave him an awkward smile, but it was a start. More than — Rhett felt a warmth spread inside his chest like he hadn’t felt in what seemed like weeks.

****

Link got up, went to class, and then Rhett did the same, moving slowly, as if through amber. He felt like he could stay in the moment forever, let the amber set around him, until he reminded himself that better things were to come. Link would give him an opportunity to apologise, and all would be well.

****

In the end, it was Link who broke the cold silence, extending an invitation to Rhett to go out with him.

****

When Rhett came back from his last class of the day, he ran into Gregg in his doorway. Gregg rushed past him without a word, leaving Rhett to look left, right, and left again dazedly, a confused, “where did you—?” slipping out of his mouth. “What are you—?” followed shortly after, and in the end, Rhett was left with no option but to just go into the room and hope that Link had an answer. Unsurprisingly, Link was bent over a book, but he was on their bed instead of at the desk, looking far more comfortable than he had the past few days.

****

He looked up from his book and greeted Rhett with a smile, and the sight made Rhett’s chest tighten. Another cliche one could apply to their current situation was that absence made the heart grow fonder, and Rhett’s heart felt like it would explode with fondness at finally seeing Link happy. Rhett immediately cracked one of his own, tight-lipped grins.

****

“Hey,” Rhett said, and moved toward the bed.

****

“Hey,” Link parroted, shuffling forwards a bit so his legs were hanging off the edge of the bed. It reminded Rhett of his favorite feature about the bed, which was the fact that it seemed to completely dwarf the both of them.

****

“Listen,” Rhett said, sitting next to Link on the bed, “I’m sorry.”

****

“It’s okay,” Link said, shrugging one shoulder, “I guess I kinda overreacted.”

****

“No, no, you were right,” Rhett said, “I guess I was just…” he paused. He could feel Link’s eyes on him, but Link didn’t say a word. “Worried someone might suspect what we’re doing, like, hanging around a girl as fine as that, y’know.”

****

“Oh,” Link said, shaking his head, “Oh. Yeah, no. Of course.”

****

Rhett finally looked up at Link, and he couldn’t quite decipher the look Link was wearing on his face. Before he could think of what to ask, though, Link was speaking.

****

“Um. I was thinking, since, it’s gonna be spring break soon and a lot of people are going home, we should take the opportunity to really party here while we can.”

****

“Party?” Rhett asked, expressing both his lack of knowledge about this get-together and the fact that Link freaking Neal was asking him to go to a party with him. It hadn’t happened in months.

****

“Yeah, it’s tomorrow night, over at Owen Hall.”

****

Rhett turned it over in his mind. “Don’t you have to study?”

****

Link punched him in the arm lightly before pointing a finger at his face. “Shut up,” he ordered, giggling.

****

Rhett narrowed his eyes as if to ask, “oh, you never study, do you?” but then simply grinned. “Sure, I’m game.”

****

Link smiled, “Great.”

****

Rhett’s grin turned into a lopsided smirk. “There’s one problem, though.”

****

“What?” Link asked, brows knitting together.

****

“A party,” Rhett said, making a goofily scandalised face, “During Lent?”

****

Link rolled his eyes, and Rhett pressed on, barely containing the laughter. “I’m just saying, man, that ain’t no way for two Christian boys to behave.”

****

Link pushed Rhett’s arm again, almost making him stumble as he laughed. “You’re such a dork,” Link said, and Rhett grinned at him.

****

“Yeah?” Rhett asked, nearing Link, taunting him. Link took the bait and tried to push him away again, and Rhett caught him by the hands, making Link push harder. He managed to get Rhett on his back, but the wrasslin’ wasn’t going to last long if anyone asked Rhett. Rhett pushed with all his might and managed to push Link down onto his back.

****

“Oh, no,” Link said, groaning in annoyance.

****

“No?”

****

“I know what you’re about to do,” Link said, like he’d had enough of it years ago, and Rhett knew exactly what he was referring to. Link groaned again, trying to push Rhett off, “Go on, do it.”

****

Rhett schooled his expression into one of seriousness, trying extremely hard not to crack up before he delivered the punchline. “Nah,” he said, moving away, the smile showing through, “I think we should wait until marriage.”

****

Link used both of his now free hands to push Rhett away, and even if it was light, Rhett complied. He got off Link and the bed, laughing as Link grimaced.

****

“Gross.”

****

Rhett laughed some more, then spoke nonchalantly once he could. “Everyone thinks we’re doing it,” he stated, making Link’s grimace turn more sour.

****

Briefly, Rhett thought that Link might say, “maybe. So what, we might as well—?”   
  
Thoughts of make-up sex rendered Rhett speechless for a moment, and he stared ahead at Link with a dumb expression on his face.

****

Link looked at him weirdly and slowly said, “yes. And they are gross,” which made Rhett laugh, breaking the tension that had built up momentarily. Rhett had, admittedly, thrown any ideas of experimentation and practice out of the window earlier. (They would make this as regular as it could be, and sex didn’t fit into that as much as kissing. Just the idea made Rhett shiver.)

****

“Alright brother,” Rhett said, raising both hands in defeat, “only joking.”

****

Link shook his head and moved back on the bed until he could reach his book. “You can’t joke about that,” he muttered, which made Rhett curious.

****

“Why not?” Rhett asked, looking up at Link, who was avoiding his gaze, while also seemingly searching for an answer in his mind.

****

“Never mind. You can,” Link mumbled.

****

It seemed like Link was mad at him, and Rhett, again, couldn’t find it within himself to go over and sweetly ask what’s wrong. He wasn’t Link’s actual boyfriend, he couldn’t care too much, and maybe this was exactly what was the problem. Maybe this is why they fought so hard. Rhett thought that maybe they weren’t built to live together in that gap between friendship and love. It would have to be one or the — well, it would definitely have to be the first. And they would have to brave whatever this was until a better solution occurred.

****

Rhett was about to make his way down to the kitchen to get something to eat, alone, but Link scrambled up off the bed and said “I’m coming too,” like he knew where Rhett was going, or like he simply didn’t care and would come along regardless. Rhett exited the room, and Link followed, carrying his book in his hand. 

****

Rhett had to admit that he was completely and definitely in love with one aspect of Link — he kept their part of the fridge well stocked. Fresh Big Macs in the fridge and extra frozen ones in the freezer, what more could a guy dream of?

****

Microwaved burgers in hand, they sat at the table side by side, with a girl sitting opposite them. Her hair was styled in a close-cropped blond bob, and she wore glasses. She was dressed in various shades of washed out blue and pink, and had a pair of tortoise-shell glasses perched on her nose. She was picking green, weird-looking cereal out of the bowl, and smiled up at them with her mouth full when they sat down.

****

“Hi,” Rhett greeted, “you must be Miri.”

****

“Mhm,” she said, chewing and swallowing her mouthful quickly before extending a hand across the table to shake each of theirs.

****

They said their names as they shook hands with her, and parroted her “Nice to meet you.”

****

She turned her nose up at their choice of food, so there wasn’t a lot of conversing going on while she was at the table. Once she got up to wash her bowl and then walk out of earshot to probably go upstairs, Rhett was already finished with his burger, but Link was still slowly chewing on his.

****

Link set his burger down as soon as she was gone and turned to look at Rhett, which brought their faces into close proximity, but that was, apparently what Link desired. For discretion, more than anything.

****

“Rhett,” he said slowly, visibly hesitating, “how do you think two guys even do it?”

****

Rhett frowned. “Do what?”

****

Link cleared his throat and went back to his burger, making Rhett wait until he finished his last two bites of it before speaking.

****

“Y’know,” Link said, busying himself with picking up their wrappers and not looking at Rhett, “sleep together.”

****

“Oh,” Rhett said, voice high and pleased, happy that he got to show off his knowledge about this. Seemed like his joking from earlier had come back to bite him in the butt, but he couldn’t say he minded too much. “Well, I heard that your butt is like, really sensitive.”

****

Link coughed, suddenly, and Rhett thought of asking him if he was okay — Link better not be getting sick now that they had plans for the next day — but then Link was standing up to go and throw their rubbish away and Rhett was following closely behind him.

****

As they walked back up to their room, Rhett continued showing off his knowledge on the topic. “It’s actually natural. Homosexuality is pretty much everywhere, like, in the animal world too. But humans get pleasure from the stimulation of the prostate—”

****

“H-how do you know all that?” Link asked, looking up at him in what Rhett liked to think was awe.

****

Rhett shrugged, watching as Link opened the door to their room.

****

“I like to do my research,” Rhett said. He’d actually accidentally stumbled upon a documentary on the topic. He’d been home alone, so he thought he might as well watch it — that worked out for him in the end.

****

“You like to do your research,” Link said, sitting on the edge of the bed and lifting his legs one by one to take his socks off. “For everything besides school.”

****

Rhett rolled his eyes, a side-effect of living with Link, most probably, and sat down on the bed next to him. “Man, I wasn’t meant for this school.”

****

Link smiled softly as he looked at him. Rhett may not have known why, but he smiled back.

****

“Yeah,” Link said wistfully, and then threw himself back on the bed, lying down with a grunt. “But we were made for this bed.”

****

Link was up as quickly as he lay down, and Rhett greeted him with a smirk Link must have been anticipating.

****

“Oh gosh,” Link’s words shivered with laughter, because he must have known how it sounded. “I meant—“

****

Rhett knew that Link meant that they were made for a bed this luxurious, a room this immaculate, a life shared and so good, but he laughed all the same. Link joined in, unable to resist the mirth, but also unable to resist complaining.

****

“I liked you better when you were all,” Link said, probably aiming for sourness, but sounding amused, “afraid of getting naked in front of me. You’re like, almost comfortable with this now.”

****

In all honesty, Rhett couldn’t recall a time when he turned down the opportunity to walk around nearly or fully nude. “When was that?” Rhett blurted, still smiling like a goof. He decided to ignore the last part of Link’s statement.

****

Link looked at him smugly. “You keep wearing that dang shirt to bed, man.”

****

Rhett looked back curiously, narrowing his eyes. There were a thousand ways to reply to that  — how is it that Link noticed that, anyway? How is it that he cared?

****

In the end, all Rhett settled for was, “Alright, Link. Tonight, I won’t.”

****

Link huffed, grimacing. “I don’t care,” he said quietly.

****

Rhett grinned. “Me neither,” he said, pulling down at the hem of his shirt before pulling it up over his head.

****

-

****

Had they slept together before?    
  
Rhett knew it was a stupid question to ask, but it truly felt like the first time he shared a bed with not only Link but anyone. Never before had he been more flustered, more aware of Link’s body next to his. There were no more makeshift pyjamas, and the night wasn’t warm enough for them to lie atop the covers, so they made do. Even if Link was on the opposite side of the bed, Rhett felt like he could feel every move of his, and his overly-sensitive ears picked up on every one of the soft sighs Link let out as before he drifted off.

****

After a while, after more than a few times of running the idea of changing his position into a more relaxed one, one nearer to the centre of the bed, Rhett’s mind and body were so overwhelmed with all the weird, tingly feelings, that he succumbed to sleep.

****

-

****

Link hadn’t been the only one who’d moved in his sleep. Rhett woke with Link’s back pressed to his chest, one of his arms thrown over Link’s middle. He’d never moved more stealthily than that morning, pulling the hand back, letting it brush over Link’s tiny waist, resting it there, frozen, when he thought Link had stirred. But Link was sound asleep, and Rhett moved his hand away. He got up, and then went to the bathroom to get rid of a certain something in his pants.

****

It was a regular morning thing. Just a regular guy thing.

****

Rhett shimmied out of his briefs and stepped into the bath, not bothering to turn the overhead shower on as he trailed a hand down between his legs, just to adjust himself a little. Before he dipped his hand down to readjust, he spat into it, just in case.

****

A long, relieved exhale followed. As he wrapped his hand around his length and closed his eyes, he tried to think of a girl’s hand in place of his, or even better, a mouth.

****

But he couldn’t, because a thought of something else stopped him from it — the thought of Link. Link’s lithe body under in his arms as they slept, his skin surprisingly soft, the glimpse of a situation similar to Rhett’s in his boxers, in the mornings…

****

Rhett shook his head to banish the thoughts, but Link kept coming back to his mind like that was where he belonged. Soft, curvaceous bodies were replaced with a familiar, hairy and angular one, and Rhett stroked himself, his mind on what it would be like, if Link were his boyfriend, if he could push his dick in between those plump lips, if those blue eyes could look up at him wantonly as Link sucked him off.

****

Suffice to say that this fake relationship thing was really messing with him.

****

Knowing he was now the proud owner of a one-way ticket to hell, Rhett sped up, moaning softly with his bottom lip caught in his teeth as he jerked off.

****

When, from the other side of the door, Link’s voice came, so did Rhett.

****

“Rhett?”

****

“Oh, fuck,” Rhett hissed, hot come spilling over his fingers.

****

Hoping that Link hadn’t heard that was futile.

****

“You okay?” Link asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Bless him, Rhett thought morbidly — if Link were privy to what had just gone on in Rhett’s head, he wouldn’t have been so cordial.

****

“Yeah,” Rhett breathed, leaning his forearm against the wall, pressing his forehead into the crook of his elbow. “Just fine.”

****  
  
  



	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more of a 5.2 than a six. still rhett's pov! :-)
> 
> thank you all so much for your immense and constant support. i love you all, i'm sorry for the delay, and i hope you like this!

Link knocked on the bathroom door again, making Rhett jump. Rhett looked back at the door, taking a deep breath before speaking.   
  
“Link?”   
  
“Um, will you be done soon? I need the can,” Link said, and Rhett nodded quickly before realising Link couldn’t see him.   
  
“Yeah, sure. Let me just wash this off,” Rhett said, placing a hand on the tap.    
  
For a moment, no sounds came from the other side of the door. Then, after a beat, Link spoke, voice dripping with confusion and curiosity. “... Wash  _ what _ off?”   
  
Rhett froze. Looking down at himself, his belly and his hand sprayed with come, he gulped, and followed it with a long “Umm…”

  
Link was waiting for an answer, and Rhett knew, but didn’t give him one. Squeezing his eyes shut in agony and turning the tap, he decided to pretend that he hadn’t heard Link’s question. He decided to pretend he hadn’t said what he’d said in the first place. What he couldn’t do, however, was to pretend that he hadn’t  _ done  _ what he’d  _ done. _ _   
_   
He let the water flow over him, let it cool him down a little, and washed off as quickly as he could. Once done, he toweled off and pulled his worn boxers back on. On his way out of the bathroom, he bumped Link’s shoulder with his own — he hadn’t been expecting Link to be standing there, and Rhett collided with him but didn’t check if he’d done any damage. He had no time to linger anywhere close to Link.    
  
“I’m just gonna,” Link said and pointed back at the bathroom door with his thumb when he got Rhett to turn and look at him. “Right…” Link said quietly. Rhett looked Link over, all the way up from his slightly hunched shoulders to his hands pressed up against his chest as he held his pile of clean clothes he was undoubtedly going to put on after his trip to the bathroom.    
  
Rhett nodded shakily and turned back to walk toward their wardrobe, trying not to wince when Link spoke again.   
  
“Rhett,” Link said softly, and Rhett turned around but didn’t meet Link’s eyes, his face burning. Link approached him calmly, and because he was shorter than Rhett, he could always easily worm his way under Rhett’s downturned face and make Rhett look at him.    
  
“You wanna sit together at lunch today?” Link asked, and it was so sweet and so unexpected that it nearly made Rhett gasp. He took the time to blink his eyes shut a few times, to compose himself before nodding.    
  
His mouth felt dry and uncomfortable, but he forced himself to say what he wanted to say. “Of course.”   
  
Link grinned, looking up at Rhett with a happy expression. Rhett looked back, and couldn’t help but to smile at the sight of him.

  
Link only smiled wider, and just as Rhett’s brow furrowed in amusement and a tiny bit of confusion, Link leaned up and kissed him.    
  


No sooner were Link’s lips gone from his cheek than Rhett’s hand had replaced them, and he held his hand up to his scalding cheek as Link looked at him smugly.   
  
“Guess I’ll see ya later,” Link said delightedly, walking backwards in an attempt to be suave. Very true to form, Link then proceeded to hit the back of his leg against the bedpost, stumbling and ruining his cool for a moment. He laughed it off, though, scrambled to straighten himself out and rushed into the bathroom.   
  
Rhett stared after him, and only when the door to the bathroom shut did he exhale.    
  


\- 

  
Passers-by would have thought Rhett had a toothache with how his hand was pressed up against his cheek all the way to class.

  
Rhett felt oddly happy the whole day, so much so that the girl who sat next to him in Math noticed it. Quirking a brow, she nudged his elbow on the desk and asked what the “rabid grin” was about. Rhett shook his head as if to say “nothing”. Facing the front of the class, grin only widening, he thought:  _ nothing at all. _ _   
  
_

For some weird reason he was happy to have received that kiss. He was also weirdly happy about the prospect of giving a kiss back, something for which he now had an excuse. 

  
-   
  
And for some reason, seeing Miss Perfect sitting across from Link at their table when he arrived at lunch made Rhett’s mood deflate.   
  
Both she and Link greeted him with enthusiastic smiles, but Rhett’s smile didn’t come as easily. He sat closer to Link than he perhaps usually would have, pressing against him — it felt like he was silently asking Link to take his side in this, asking him to stand by him, to choose him over her — in what, Rhett didn’t know, but still he wanted Link to prefer him to Miss Perfect, in any case.   
  
Rhett felt helpless. To use his retaliative kiss now would be the worst thing he could do — Link would undoubtedly get mad at him for making him look  _ too gay _ again, so Rhett sat still, keeping his lips and hands to himself and his food. All thoughts of greeting Link with a peck to the cheek had to be thrown out the window.   
  
The lunch was pretty boring. With Miss Perfect —  _ Jill, _ Rhett should really get used to calling her by her name — Rhett felt like he was being overlooked, and like he had nothing to contribute to the boring conversation, something he seldom felt when it was just him and Link.    
  
Rhett kept to himself, ignoring the looks which Link shot him — Rhett knew those looks really well, they were the “why are you acting so weird?” kind. But Rhett didn’t think his unwillingness to hang with Jill was anything weird, it was just that he didn’t feel like it. He couldn’t be affectionate with Link, either, which might have made it seem like he didn’t want to hang around Link either — and if Link thought that was weird, it was his own fault for not appreciating it the previous time. 

  
Therefore, Rhett let Link give him as many judgy looks as Link pleased, and kept to himself. Rhett wasn’t even going to listen to their conversation — that’s how much he didn’t care.   
  
Rhett’s ears perked up when he heard Link ask, “You doing anything tonight?”   
  
Rhett turned to look at Link, knowing that his face was marred with a deep frown but not caring one bit. _Tonight?_ Weren’t they supposed to go to a party together, _tonight?_ _What the heck?_  
  
Jill pressed her lips in a tight smile and nodded. Rhett felt like taking a relieved breath of air.   
  
“Yeah,” Jill said apologetically, and Link blinked before grinning.   
  
“That’s, uh, that’s okay,” Link said. “I was just gonna ask if you wanted to come to this party with us.”  
  
Rhett moved away from Link a little so that he could take a better look at him and try to decipher from his facial expression just what the hell it was that he was doing. Was Link willing to bring her along just like that, let her impose on their night? Was he willing to impede the progress of their relationship — _friendship_ — just because of a miniscule chance of getting his dick wet?   
  
And it wasn’t like Rhett couldn’t admit that he would help Link out with that one himself, if Link just freaking asked him to. Bros helped each other out all the time, and with the arrangement him and Link were in, it made even more sense for them to simply make use of the situation and fuck. Get rid of all of that tension one tended to carry when not as sexually active as one wanted to be.   
  
Like: Rhett would suck Link off, no biggie. He was his supposed boyfriend, anyway.  
  
Rhett shook his head and turned back to his meal. Jill was explaining something about a roommate dumping her boyfriend and asking Jill out, and how said roommate was probably only looking for someone to get drunk with, which Jill didn’t mind. Yadda-yadda, Rhett thought, glad he wasn’t in Link’s shoes. Rhett was sure that he could save Link by talking about something interesting for a change, but decided against it. Link would, deservedly, be receiving the silent treatment. That would teach him to offer their nights out to any girl who just happened to come along.   
  
Rhett was jealous, yes, but knowing this didn’t mean that he thought it wasn’t justified. Or that he would let Link off easily any time soon. Link was acting weird, and yes, how could he not be with the situation they were in — but Rhett thought he, himself, was taking this a lot more normally than Link, with the proper amount of confusion regarding his sexuality. Link seemingly didn’t care — he joked about all of it way more easily (seriously — what was with the cheek kisses?), while flirting with girls openly and not worrying about how other people would see them.   
  
Rhett studied Link with a silent frown for the rest of the day, refusing to speak unless absolutely necessary — he gave Link one-worded answers because he didn’t want to spark a conversation about why he didn’t want to converse — all until the evening, when it was time for them to get ready for the party. Rhett couldn’t keep his excited mouth shut with how much he was interested in what he would wear, what Link would wear, would they compliment each other or even, maybe, match? Should they walk into the party holding hands—?  
  
“Yeah, that would be good,” Link said, making Rhett turn around at breakneck speed and almost drop the blue-and-green striped henley he had picked out for himself.   
Turning around meant seeing that Link wasn’t in the bathroom, but rather at the bathroom door, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. It meant realising that he had been muttering out loud all along, and that Link had heard all of it.   
  
Rhett cleared his throat, turning back around to the closet, wishing he could climb in and lock himself inside until Link forgot about this. “Yeah?” he then asked, voice cracking.  
  
“Yeah,” Link said cheerily, walking over to stand next to him and peruse the array of clothing. “It would be really good if we did it, like, for show. Then if there’s not many people we know or if they’re drunk, later, we can do whatever we want,” his voice got a bit quieter near the end, and Rhett nodded. Unfamiliar people, especially unfamiliar girls, meant that there was a higher chance one of them would get away with “cheating”; Rhett knew it wasn’t going to be him, and thinking about Link doing it made his stomach churn.   
  
“Right,” Rhett confirmed it, and picked the first jeans his eyes landed on, suddenly decided on what he was going to wear.   
  
With Link’s back turned to him, Rhett could look at Link openly — what was the harm in looking at him if Link couldn’t see it? Link couldn’t think anything of it, if he didn’t know it was happening.

  
Link hummed as he picked out a grey button-up shirt and a pair of jeans. Rhett made sure to avert his gaze from Link the moment he thought Link was turning around.    
He turned away from Link completely, and began taking off his day clothes to change into his ones he freshly picked out for the night. When he was done, he turned to see Link facing him, but looking down as he attempted to zip up his jeans.    
  
Rhett took in his appearance, and was taken aback for a moment. Link looked beautiful. The shirt he wore was one of his tighter ones — mind you, neither him nor Link ever wore or even owned anything exactly tight, but this one was more tight-fitting than the rest, and was almost pulled taut up around Link’s broad shoulders. With the way he was looking down, his hair fell into his eyes a little, and the sight made the corner of Rhett’s lips turn up in a small smile. When Link shifted, Rhett finally and suddenly realised what it meant that Link was facing him, and he didn’t know what to make out of that one.   
  
Rhett turned his gaze away again, a blush creeping up on his cheeks. Thinking that Link had seen, or even watched, him undress and dress was interesting, and made Rhett’s smile widen.    
  
“Ready to go?” Link then asked, making Rhett look back at him. Link was smiling at him, running his hand through his messy hair as if to push it back into place.   
  
Rhett gulped. “Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Um. Sure. Let’s go,” he thought he was rambling and that he would be called out on it, but Link only smiled at him gracefully.    
  
Opening the door for Link came as something natural to Rhett, something he didn’t even think about until Link gave him an amused smile and a feignedly unamused shake of his head. 

  
Rhett grinned back, letting Link think that it was a joke. That would certainly be easier.    
  
They walked all the way to Owen Hall at an appropriate distance, not speaking much while they walked. Rhett thought Link looked lost in thought, and he probably was, all cheerful and relaxed. All Rhett could think about was the distance between them, keeping it appropriate until it was time for him to take Link’s hand — or would Link take his, and when will that happen?    
  
“Hey,” Link bumped his elbow against Rhett’s as if to get his attention.    
  
“Yeah?” Rhett asked, looking down at him.   
  
“Don’t worry,” Link said, shrugging, smiling. “Or if you have to, don’t look so nervous, man. We’ll pull it off.”   
  
Rhett stared at him as Link looked ahead with a small smile on his lips. Rhett felt like he was about to jump out of his skin. Link had spoken, but Rhett didn’t think to answer. He only felt like he wanted to touch Link, but also like he didn’t want to want it, and he had no idea what he was doing, even if, in the end, he was just walking beside his old friend.    
  
Like rubbing salt into a wound, Link then looked down at their hands, and linked them. Just as simple as that, he took Rhett by the hand and led him forward (into what Rhett was certain was his premature death, caused, of course, by a heart attack).   
  
Rhett kept staring at him, and tried to school his expression into something other than what he feared it was — the goofiest face, almost cartoonish heart eyes.    
  
Link huffed, looking away from Rhett and then back at him to mutter, “Shut up.”   
  
Rhett’s heart jammed in his throat. “I didn’t—”   
  
Link just shook his head, smiling, and dragged him along. They were nearing the house, which Rhett should have noticed before. It only now dawned on him that that must have been the reason Link took his hand, the fact that they were in other people’s sight, and not some… other… reasons. (What other reasons could there be?)   
  
“Hi!” Link said, to someone in a group of people in front of them, in the main hallway. “You guys going somewhere?”   
  
One of the guys Link knew, probably someone from one of his classes, puffed his cheeks up behind a smile. “No tequila here. I’d advise you guys to just leave, but thank God, we’re going to get some.”    
  
Link chuckled, but Rhett couldn’t help his loud laugh. The guy looked at him with a grin, pleased that his joke had been well received, and turned to Link.   
  
“This the boyfriend, then?”    
  
“Yeah,” Link said, grinning back, “This is Rhett.” He squeezed Rhett’s hand in his own, which instantly had Rhett in a cold sweat.   
  
“Nice to meet ya,” the guy said, and then turned away from them before he could introduce himself — one of his friends was calling him, and he ducked away then, saying he’d see them later.    
  
Link grinned up at Rhett, swinging their intertwined hands back and forth idly, making Rhett shiver any time Link’s fingers moved up against his, caressing them inadvertently as their hands moved.    
  
“Rhett?” Link asked, frowning just a tiny bit.   
  
“Huh?” Rhett asked dumbly.   
  
Link laughed. “I asked if you want to go and get something to drink?”   
  
“Oh,” Rhett nodded. The embarrassment was so mortifying it was better not to analyse it. But then again, how’d he completely missed Link’s question— ?   
  
Once again, Rhett let it go and let Link lead him on their way. They said their hellos to a few people they knew, but overall, the party was packed with freshmen, which made them stand out for more than the obvious reason of having their hands joined as they walked, but also, somehow, made them invisible to all the people, who cared more about their peers than a couple of older guys.   
  
A sense of invisibility meant that Rhett should have said no to the drinks: It’s when Link went to pour the punch that their hands had to separate, and when Rhett took a cup, he used his left hand, deliberately dangling his right — the one closer to Link — next to Link’s, even going so far as to brush it against Link’s own. They were invisible, were they not? So why not make the best of it?

  
Link’s pinky twitched a little, brushing the back of Rhett’s hand, but then he moved it away.    
  
Rhett turned his palm sideways, ready to chase Link’s hand with his own, when there was a loud shriek from somewhere on their left.   
  
“Chad!” a girl practically screamed in delight. Rhett wouldn’t have thought much of it, had she not been looking directly at Link.    
  
Link’s mouth hung open in confusion as he looked up at Rhett, and then over his shoulder, on both sides, only to see the table with the drinks behind them.   
  
“You ass! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” she asked, coming closer and closer, and Link had no time to duck away before she leapt up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself up as she hugged him.    
  
“I’m — I’m not,” Link tried, and once he was released from the bear hug, tried to look the girl square in the eyes.   
  
“Oh my god,” she said, giggling, “oh my god,” she repeated, stepping away.   
  
_ You’d better stay away, _ Rhett found himself thinking, found himself almost saying it. The thought was absurdly, ridiculously, stupidly possessive. Nonsensical.    
  
He knocked back his drink as he watched the two interact.    
  
“I’m sorry,” the girl said, placing her palm on Link’s chest, leaning into him as she laughed, swaying tipsily. “It’s because of Jack that I think you’re Chad,” she said, pointing at her cup, which was almost filled to the brim with what Rhett hoped wasn’t straight-up Jack Daniels.    
  
“No worries,” Link said, giving her a wry smile, “I could be Chad for tonight.”   
  
The girl giggled, pulling her bottom lip in with her teeth as she looked up at him. “Oh really?”    
  
“You can call me anything you like,” Link said, now getting cocky, making Rhett want to disappear. Rhett couldn’t stop this, so why should he be forced to stay there and watch it unfold?   
  
The girl opened her mouth again, producing another obnoxious giggle.    
  
Rhett poured himself another drink. He wouldn’t care.   
  
“Don’t be Chad, though, Chad’s my ex.”   
  
“Maybe I’m your ex,” Link said, stammering a little, forcing the pick-up line: “I finally came to my senses and realised I shouldn’t have left.”   
  
“Oh, no,” the girl said, slapping Link lightly on the pec. Rhett felt like placing his own hand on Link’s chest, pulling him away and just letting this girl know about all that she needed to know. “I would have remembered it if you were my ex,” she added, winking.   
  
Rhett cringed — he didn’t feel strong enough to look at Link’s reaction. He sipped his drink, turning away toward the party, overlooking it with dread.    
  
Link could flirt freely. She didn’t know him.    
  
Rhett didn’t care.   
  
Just as Rhett decided this, when there was maybe the thinnest sliver of a chance that he could distance himself, that the agony would leave him alone for a second, he heard himself being talked about.    
  
“Who’s your friend?” she asked, pointing at Rhett, because she didn’t know Rhett either. Didn’t know that he was Link’s supposed boyfriend. 

  
Not very politely, Rhett turned sideways to mix more Jack and Coke into his cup. He’d decided long ago that punch wouldn’t suffice.   
  
“Oh, that’s Rhett. He’s uhh…” Link began, looking over at Rhett.    
  
Rhett stopped, cup in hand, quirking a brow, waiting for Link to tell her Rhett was his friend, not revealing to anyone who was watching that his heart was about to beat out of his chest. An irrational hope fuelled his heart, making it ache with longing for Link to claim him as his boyfriend.   
  
“My roommate,” Link said, and if he saw Rhett’s face fall, he didn’t comment on it.   
  
“Oh,” the girl said, “Nice to meet you,” she said. “How stupid of me! I didn’t even introduce myself. Hi! I’m Jess,” she squeaked, swiftly waving a stiff hand in front of her face in what she must have thought was a cute, quirky way.    
  
“Hey Jess,” Link said smoothly, “the name’s Link.”

  
“I’m gonna—” Rhett began, having decided that he’d had enough of listening to it, but was interrupted.   
  
“Let’s dance, Link,” Jess commanded, and Link was visibly taken aback.    
  
“Uhhh…”   
  
“C’mon, I love this song,” she said, giggling, pulling him along and almost spilling her drink. Link placing his own drink onto the table to take Jess by the waist was the last thing Rhett saw before he walked away. And if he walked away huffily, he had every right to do so — people who were about to hook up were an annoying sight, to say the least.    
  
Rhett barely reached the other side of the room when he found that his glass was empty. He’d downed his drink and wanted to get a refill at the table, but was adamant on not catching sight of Link, so he opted to go to another room in search of a drink.    
  
He found it easily enough. Later, the corridors and rooms of the freshmen-packed Owen Hall blurred into an intricate maze which Rhett was navigating with fascination. A drink in his hand and a lot of friendly, rowdy people singing around him, he let himself go easily. Link was an omnipresent ache in his head and his heart, and there would never be a moment when he wouldn’t think of how much better it would be if Link was by his side. But he reminded himself that Link didn’t need him right now, and pressed on on his own.   
  
Then, someone screamed. In fact, quite a few people did, and Rhett could recognise the noises as high-pitched, classically girly ones. It took him a moment to realise that they were screams of glee, and once he did, he followed the voices to their source, back down the same corridors he had walked earlier. His mind was fuzzy, his mouth pulled into a smile which only widened when he came to the source of the commotion.   
  
The rooms near the main entrance to the hall were plunged into darkness. Even the last overhead light in the hallway had been turned off. Walking up, he could see that the only source of light in one of the rooms was a flickering neon sign, and the one opposite it was illuminated by the dim light of a big lava lamp. Rhett lost himself in the lights and shapes of the bright yellow bubbles in the lava lamp, his eyes fixed on it as he crossed the room until he almost had his nose pressed against the glass. Rhett smiled, watching in awe. Link should see this, he thought.    
  
Suddenly, it didn’t matter that Link was with someone else. Rhett would find him anyway. Drunkenness brought about courage, or simply thoughtlessness — whatever it was, Rhett embraced it, and suddenly the intricate maze of rooms in Owen didn’t seem as intricate, and he could clearly remember the room in which he left Link. Especially since it was the very room he was standing in right now.   
  
Someone flicked the light on in the hallway, illuminating the room and a plethora of couples who moved together to the faint music that came from the hallway.    
  
Rhett turned around, and his eyes landed on a pair that had been watching him. Right next to the door, half-lit by the light from the hallway, stood Link, his arms around Jess, his heavy-lidded eyes on Rhett. Rhett gulped, staring back at Link, unsure of what to do.    
  
Link’s head was thrown back a little, resting against the wall, his neck bared for the girl to bury her face into. Rhett couldn’t see it clearly, but he thought that the girl must have been kissing Link, and something unpleasant stirred in his stomach.    
  
Link’s hands moved up and down her waist, dipping as far as the backs of her thighs. He squeezed a handful of her ass, pulling her closer, but did not once look down at her. His eyes stayed firmly fixated on Rhett, who stood dumbly across the room.   
  
Rhett took a sip from his cup, but then realised that it was empty. Behind the girl’s back, Link was still looking at him, and when she kissed a trail up his neck and he parted his lips in a gasp, Rhett squeezed his red solo cup in his hand, making the plastic snap.   
  
The cup was left on the floor, somewhere at the back of the room, along with Rhett’s patience. He made his way through the crowd, watching Link’s eyes widen as he shoved his way over determinedly to take Link by the forearm.    
  
“You can’t stay here, let’s find a place —” Rhett began, but was, again, cut off.    
  
The girl unstuck herself from Link to look up at Rhett and see what’s happening, and grinned up at Rhett.    
  
“Your friend’s here,” she said giddily, not looking at Link. When she turned to finally face him, it was only so that she could announce: “I’m getting another drink. And then maybeee…” she drawled, running her fingers up Link’s waist, “you could meet me outside.” It was an order more than a suggestion, in fact it was said almost like it was a fact, like she was confident that Link would follow.   
  
Rhett’s problem was that he wasn’t confident that Link wouldn’t.    
  
“She’s really into me,” Link said, turning his face up to look at Rhett as soon as Jess turned away.    
  
Rhett couldn’t help but scoff. “She doesn’t know you. Doesn’t know about us.”   
  
Rhett hadn’t thought about how saying that out loud might bring about some questions from Link, but he was saved when Link simply shrugged and said: “Or she’s into me regardless.”    
  
Rhett closed his eyes as the agony consumed him. There would be no talking Link out of this.    
  
Then, Link inadvertently hurt Rhett more by starting to relay his plan of cheating. “If something did come up could blame it on the alcohol and then you’d be the forgiving boyfriend,” Link said, looking up at Rhett with a shit-eating grin.   
  
Rhett had almost been ready to lay it all out, tell Link what he felt, even if he wasn’t sure of that himself, but decided that it would be futile even if he tried. The frustrating, equally foreign and strong feelings would stay buried just for a while longer.    
  
He couldn’t help but grit his teeth before replying with a curt, “Yeah.”   
  
Link smiled up at him, and then averted his gaze. Rhett stared down at him with a painful expression, wishing he could put everything he wanted into words that weren’t as scary. Deep down he knew that he knew exactly what it was that he felt, knew what the longing for Link’s touch and the possessiveness meant, but also, it couldn’t have possibly meant  _ that. _   
  
As Rhett looked at Link, at his pretty, tired eyes which were looking somewhere past Rhett, his drunken mind suggested catching Link off-guard and just kissing him, consequences be damned. But even before Rhett could talk himself out of it, Link moved, unstuck himself from the wall in a second to push past Rhett and follow a familiar figure into the hallway, and then outside.    
  
Rhett followed suit.   
  
When Link noticed him, just outside the main entrance, he jumped up in surprise. “Rhett,” he said, “You scared the crap outta me.”   
  
Rhett didn’t respond, just watched Link’s eyes narrow. “Wait, what are you doing? Do you want her, too?” the tone of the ‘too’ suggested it meant ‘as well as he wanted previous girls Link dated’, and not too as in, ‘as well as Link wants her’.   
  
Either way. “No, I—” Rhett began, walking ahead with Link as they followed Jess, who’d ducked away to behind the back of Owen, where it was dark.    
  
“You can have her,” Link said, suddenly resigned, sounding as if he didn’t care, even after all of the elaborate planning he’d relayed to Rhett of how he would get away with kissing her.   
  
In the darkened space behind the building, where the brick walls were illuminated only by moonlight, it took their eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness. In those few seconds where they weren’t exactly familiar with their surroundings, they didn’t notice how close Jess was. At least Rhett didn’t.   
  
Her giggle came first, and then Rhett felt her hand crawl up his arm. “I was under the impression that I could have both of you.”   
  
Rhett gave himself a moment to think about it. He would definitely rather be there with the two of them than leave Link alone with her. He could offer some damage control. If he couldn’t pry her away by kissing Link, he could by kissing her. Link would, evidently, not care.

  
Now that Rhett could see her, skin illuminated an almost-blueish hue under the moonlight, he decided that she wasn’t bad-looking. And she had a huge rack.   
  
Link huffed, speaking almost immediately. “Rhett doesn’t share.”   
  
That was true, Rhett thought, and yet hearing Link say it like that made him soften. “You’re not mine to share, bo,” he said softly, looking down at Link and hoping that he didn’t sound too slurred, he wanted Link to know that it was genuine. “You can do—”   
  
Link’s eyebrows furrowed, and Rhett recognised Link’s smile as one of him trying to contain laughter.   
  
“I meant share her,” Link said, shaking his head at Rhett. The alcohol must have been inflicting Link less because it took Rhett another moment to get on the same train of thought.   
  
With a nervous chuckle, Rhett bowed his head and scratched the back of it. “Ah. Right.”   
  
Drunkenly, swaying to the faint pulse of music that came through the wall, Jess walked along the wall almost until she was at the other end of the building, leaving them behind.   
  
With her out of earshot, looking ahead at her traipsing around, Link asked: “Should we take her back to the apartment?”    
  
It was not a crazy suggestion. It wasn’t too far, it would be comfortable, and it would fulfill just one of Rhett’s recent fantasies. But, somehow, the fact that he didn’t want her there overruled everything.    
  
He gave Link no reply, and moved determinedly toward Jess. She had stopped, somewhere along her merry way, and leaned against the wall to look back at them as she waited for them to join her. Not checking if Link was following, but feeling like he would, Rhett walked all the way over to Jess, took her in his arms, and kissed her.    
  
Relaxing against the wall, she wrapped her arms around him lightly and kissed back. Rhett could feel the plastic brim of her glass pressing against his back, and hoped that she wouldn’t spill her drink on him. The kiss was nothing special, but Rhett enjoyed the feeling of lips rubbing against his drunken ones. Any sort of touch made him feel better, so he kept on, until he felt something warm pushing gently against his chest. Opening his eyes and moving away, he saw that it was Link’s hand. He looked up Link’s arm to his face, moving away from Jess, letting Link take over. And if Rhett thought Link would take over in kissing him and not Jess, well…   
  
Link kissed her fiercely, and she melted under his touch. Rhett looked at the two of them, watched Link move his lips slowly as he kissed her, his tongue flicking out to meet hers at times. Looking at Link kiss her, feeling his heart pull towards him and his pants tighten, Rhett leaned over to claim his bit of Link, and kissed his cheek.   
  
Link broke the kiss, turning his face toward Rhett. Jess was undoubtedly watching it unfold, because soon after she put her free hand on Link’s neck and whispered, “Yeah, baby, kiss him.”   
  
Link looked at Rhett hesitantly at first, but then twitched, leaning forward an inch, as if he were about to do it. Rhett, with his mind still clouded from the drink, decided to take Jess’ advice. He closed his eyes, and kissed Link. Link pressed back into it instantly, and Rhett brought one hand down to the small of Link’s back.    
  
Rhett hadn’t been expecting Link’s lips to be so soft, so pliant, hadn’t expected them to move so gently against his own. Rhett lost himself in the feeling of Link — his curiosities regarding Link, his fantasies of how Link might touch him, didn’t even come close to reality. He wanted the feeling of Link’s lips on his own for the rest of his life. When Link parted his lips, letting his tongue brush Rhett’s lower lip, Rhett’s stomach flipped, and the strong feeling it invoked in him made him break the kiss.    
  
Link looked at him for a moment, an unreadable expression on his face, before turning away to connect his lips with Jess’. Only then did Rhett notice that Jess’ hand was under his shirt, pressed up against his bare skin. He wriggled out of her touch, and she moved her hand up to take his own, and then Link’s.   
  
She brought their hands to her own body, as if urging them to touch her, and both took the opportunity to grope what they could. The soft sighs she let out weren’t too bad, Rhett thought. She seemed to be enjoying herself, which was good. She took it with with way less fretting than either of them did, and all the while, she kept taking sips out of her cup.    
  


Then, she reached up, and unbuttoned the top button of her shirt with one hand, expertly. She took Link’s hand and brought it up to the second button, and slowly, he got to unbuttoning her shirt.    
  
Once her shirt was open, it was even clearer that she wasn’t wearing a bra.    
  
She giggled as both of them went to grope her, each burying his face in the side of her neck as they kissed down to her chest. Copping a feel wasn’t something Rhett was about to pass up on, even if his mind wasn’t really on it. They touched her, kissed her chest, and that was all there was to it. Rhett wasn’t focused on the task at hand, and with the way he was trying to focus on her, he couldn’t see Link, and the moments in which he couldn’t see Link blurred together into something that didn’t matter in the least.    
  
Finally, when Rhett felt Link’s hair tickle the side of his face and turned to see him looking up at Jess (as he had his teeth on her nipple), he moved a bit closer, turning his head to kiss a spot next to Link’s mouth on her, and then leaned in to sneak in a short kiss to the side of Link’s mouth. Link moved away from her a little, so he could turn and peck Rhett on the lips, and Rhett was ready to dive back in with another dizzying kiss when Jess put a hand on his jaw, making him look up at her.   
  
“Your turn,” she said, looking between them. And if she sounded out of it, breathless and woozy, neither of them thought much of it. Rhett didn’t exactly know what she meant until Link straightened up and brought his hands down to the hem of his shirt. He looked hesitant in taking it off, and to save him from it, Rhett reached down before pulling his shirt up and over his head.    
  
No sooner had he pulled it off that he was faced with the sight of Jess looking at the ground, green in the face.   
  
“Oh, fuck,” she muttered, dropping her cup to the concrete below. She turned away quickly before heaving.    
  
Link was bent over next to her in a second, scooping her hair up in a ponytail he tightened with his hand. Gently, he patted her back as she emptied the contents of her stomach.    
  
Rhett busied himself with putting his shirt on, and walked over to Link to see that he was helping Jess button her shirt, as she leaned against the wall, looking ready to collapse.    
  
“Fuuuck,” she said in a drawn-out voice, and Rhett gulped.   
  
“We need to get her inside,” Rhett said, almost instantly sobered up.    
  
“Yeah,” Link confirmed, nodding, letting Rhett sidestep him to pick Jess up in his arms. Quickly, Rhett carried her inside, glad to seem so strong and composed in front of Link, who was by his side. They rushed, pushing their way through drunken groups of people until they found an unoccupied, relatively clean room. Link held the door open as Rhett carried her in and laid her down on the bottom bunk.   
  
“Wait, where does she live? Like, can she get home safe?” Rhett murmured once she buried the side of her face in the pillow, turning toward Link whose eyes widened when he heard the question.   
  
“I don’t know,” Link whispered, before turning to look at her.   
  
She had, apparently, heard him, since she spoke from her spot on the bed. “I live here,” she muttered.   
  
“What, in this room?” Link asked, at the same time that Rhett exclaimed  _ “Here?” _   
  


But all she did was shake her head before rolling over. “Second floor.”   
  
“Okay, well, uhh,” Link began awkwardly, and Jess waved her hand in front of her tightly shut eyes.    
  
“Go away,” she said, and Rhett and Link scrambled to turn away, muttering apologies as they went.    
  
In the hallway, Link leaned against the wall and let out a long, relieved sigh. “God.”    
  
“I know,” Rhett said, chuckling bitterly. “So… You wanna hang around some more or..?”    
  
Link shook his head, looking up at Rhett with tired eyes. With a small smile on his lips, he said, “Let’s go home.”   
  
“Okay,” Rhett agreed, and Link, still unmoving, smiled widely up at him. It was so happy and beautiful and all Rhett wanted was to stay in that moment forever. The night had not been perfect by any standards except for Rhett’s twisted ones — Link had kissed him, and was now looking up at him with a smile that lit up the whole building. There wasn’t much that could have happened that would beat that.   
  
Link ruined the moment by moving, by heading for the door, and Rhett quickly caught up, walking beside him.

  
Accidentally, as if drawn to something he was supposed to see, Rhett turned his head in the opposite direction, only to be made to do a double-take and confirm that the girl he saw was indeed Miss Perfect.    
  
Rhett turned back around in a flash. His hand found Link’s and he wove their fingers together, pulling Link forward and leading him away.    
  
Link would probably want to go and say hello, or whatever. They were both tired after the night they had, and they really should just be getting home. There was an even bigger number of reasons why engaging in any sort of contact with Miss Perfect would have been not good.   
  
Link addressed the hand situation only when they were out in the brisk air of the night, by pulling his hand away from Rhett’s. In reality, it didn’t alter the temperature of the air around them, but Rhett couldn’t help but to feel colder without the reassuring warmth of Link’s palm pressed up against his own.    
  
They walked in silence, Link’s eyes always somewhere in front of him — something Rhett noticed because his own eyes were perpetually on Link.    
  
When Link turned his head to look at him before speaking, Rhett turned his head forward and away from Link, and he could see that they were in the proximity of their home.   
  
What Link said had nothing to do with home, though.    
  
Silent laughter turning into giggles, Link smirked. “She puked because you took your shirt off.”   
  
Rhett first narrowed his eyes, gaze snapping back to Link, before letting the smile overtake his expression.   
  
“Shut up,” he muttered, smiling from ear to ear when Link only laughed harder.    
  
“Shh,” Link then enunciated, giddily, as they neared the door of their house. “We can’t wake up our housemates.”   
  
Rhett nodded, watching Link unlock the door with a fond smile. When Link opened the door to let them in, pretending to sneak around to be as quiet as he could, there was little Rhett wanted to do more than pin Link against the wall of the darkened foyer and kiss the life out of him.   
  
Link turned to look at him, smile still on his face, as he tiptoed up the stairs. Rhett watched him go before following, thinking that he could only dream of the day he and Link might get in late and have to be quiet so as not to wake their neighbours, struggling to contain the sounds of their kisses, sighs, moans.    
  
Feeling a familiar twitch in his pants but being adamant that he would not give in this time, Rhett made a beeline for the bathroom door as soon as it was in sight, but only to brush his teeth. In the end, it was just a 20-second swish of toothpaste in his mouth to make it taste less rank in the morning. He splashed some water on his face to freshen up, and was just about ready to go to bed.   
  
When he exited the bathroom, having willed his dick to take a chill pill, Rhett was graced with the sight of Link in his underwear, which almost brought about the entire process all over again. Thankfully, he wasn’t as gone on Link yet, and could let Link pass by him on his way to the bathroom without embarrassing himself.    
  
Rhett stripped down to his underwear as well and lay under the covers, exhausted, head buzzing with remaining traces of alcohol.    
  
Link walked in after the prescribed three minutes of brushing and lifted the covers to lay down next to Rhett, sighing contentedly once he tucked himself in.

  
Rhett looked at him, and then looked at him some more.    
  
It would be weirder if they didn’t address _ it _ — if Rhett truly didn’t care about _ it,  _ he should just mention  _ it, _ like, no biggie.   
  
As if to prove that he did care, Rhett’s tongue twisted as he uttered the simplest of words.    
  
“Wanna talk about it?” Rhett asked nervously, flicking his gaze over at Link, who was looking up.   
  
Link was quiet for a moment, but then clicked his tongue before speaking. “Honestly,” Link began, shifting in bed a little. “That was awesome, man,” he said, sounding a bit bashful. 

  
Rhett raised his eyebrows, looking over at Link only to find Link already looking at him.     
  


“She was so freaking hot,” Link said then, grinning, “And sharing her with you was definitely a new layer to our friendship.”   
  
Rhett grinned back, biting the inside of his cheek. It had been fun. But Link still didn’t address the part where they kissed.   
  
“She kissed well,” Rhett said, making Link’s lips part. His cheeks seemed to have darkened, but Rhett couldn’t know for sure of it in the faint moonlight. Link turned his gaze away, looking up again.    
  
“Yeah. You too,” Link muttered, making Rhett’s heart skip a beat. His mouth dried out, and he couldn’t even speak, but he still wanted to offer Link some more of that good kissing, if he’d like it.   
  
“But it didn’t feel real,” Link muttered, breath coming in a little faster.   
  
Rhett wanted to keep his cool about himself, but his voice betrayed him. In a soft waver, he asked, “What do you mean?”   
  
“Just, like…” Link stammered, speaking slowly, “not genuine. I mean, like, she forced me to kiss you and it was for her…”   
  
Rhett nodded. He tried his best to huff, but ended up producing something like a sniff instead. “Yeah, no. Definitely. Thank God, right?”   
  
Link pressed his lips together and nodded silently.    
  


Rhett kept quiet, too, staring ahead of himself as he tried to make sense of it. They were back to square one. Suddenly, Rhett thought it absurd that he ever thought that Link would let him kiss him again. Really, how could he have realistically hoped for that?   
  
Feeling like someone was looking at him, he turned toward Link and caught his eye.   
  
“Can I ask you something, no questions asked?” Link asked quietly, eyes gentle, not revealing much, except, maybe, sadness.   
  
Rhett shifted in bed, turning onto his side to face Link. Link cast his eyes down, looking anywhere but Rhett as he spoke.    
  
“I just, today,” he began, one hand atop the covers, fingers fidgeting, “when I saw you there, across the room, I couldn’t stop thinking about what you told the dean about our first kiss.”

****

This reminded Rhett that him and Link just had their first kiss, something he never imagined would go the way it did.    
  
“Did you ever think about kissing me?”    
  
Rhett’s heart jumped up into his throat. He kept quiet, staring at Link, his mind in overdrive.   
  
“Rhett?” Link asked quietly, and Rhett was suddenly terrified.   
  
“What — no,” he said immediately, shaking his head as much as he could with it being on the pillow. His cheeks were scalding, and he was glad of the absence of light in the room. His heart was beating quickly, almost erratically, and he prayed that it wasn’t audible.    
  
Link spluttered to reply, “No, I mean, that’s weird. Of course. Gosh. Uh. I meant, like,” Link brought his hand up to scratch his neck, “Sometimes you just get these weird thoughts…”   
  
Rhett’s breath caught in his throat. He paused to let Link go on, but when Link didn’t say another word, he asked, “Like?”   
  
Link sighed in frustration, “I know that you’re gonna laugh but you can. ’Cause. It’s laughable, and it’s weird, but today, when Jess was kissing my neck and I was looking at you and you were looking at me, and you bit your lip and like, I could almost feel like you were there —”

  
Rhett was certain that he’d forgotten how to breathe. 

  
“Rhett?” Link asked, desperately, and yet Rhett lay unmoving, like made of marble stone. “Crap,” Link muttered, “I shouldn’t have even — but anyway, now you know. It was gross, yes, but at least now I get where you got that idea from.”   
  
Rhett listened to Link speak, unsure of how to proceed. He thought about the other couples who lived next door to them, thinking about universes where him and Link were the slightly incompatible, quinoa-eating partners; or yet where Link was the only light of his life, someone so important to him that other people knew it and called him after Link.    
  
He looked over at Link, his pretty profile, ski-jump nose turned up as he stared at the ceiling.   
  
Suddenly, even with a mind mostly cleared off alcohol, Rhett was ready to push himself up, hover over Link and then lean down, continue where they left off. Make the reality of Link being his partner that reality. He was scared shitless, yes, and there was a big chance that Link would call him gross and throw him out of their room, but, whatever. As far as Rhett knew, Gregg didn’t have any new roommates. Everything would sort itself out.    
  
Rhett raised himself up, supporting himself on an elbow. Maybe, Link wouldn’t want to be his friend anymore. Maybe, he could play it off as a joke, then.   
  
“Link—” he was going to tell him. Show him. Something had changed between them, Rhett couldn’t deny it anymore, and he needed to know if Link felt the same. Rhett didn’t want to put a name to it. It wasn’t that he was in love, it wasn’t that — whatever it was, he hoped Link could help him figure it out, by, maybe, kissing him. Over and over.   
  
Link’s eyes flicked over to his, and then back to the ceiling, as if he didn’t want to look at Rhett while speaking.    
  
“I know,” Link said, as if he’d suddenly found the solution to a great problem. “I’m gonna ask Miss Perfect out,” Link announced to the ceiling, breathless and determined.   
  
“What?” Rhett said weakly, narrowing his eyes, before they widened. But — Rhett was going to ask if — if Link would —   
  
“Gonna ask Jill out,” Link repeated, smiling. “Think it’s finally time I square up, you know what I mean?”   
  
Rhett nodded soundlessly and lay back down. His throat had dried out and all of the moisture seemed to have gone to his eyes.    
  
“Right. Yeah,” Rhett said quietly, fearing that if he spoke louder, his voice would crack in a really embarrassing way. “I know what you mean,” he rambled, turning his head away from Link, fixating his gaze on the upper corner of the room where he’d seen a small spider web that morning.    
  
“What were you gonna say?” Link then whispered, voice still happy from his most recent announcement.    
  
“Nothing,” Rhett said, swallowing. “Think we should go to sleep.”   
  
“Oh,” Link whispered. “Right. Yeah. Good night.”   
  
Rhett pressed his lips together and turned away. He didn’t like sleeping on his side, but this time it provided comfort, providing him space where Link, hopefully, wouldn’t be too close.    
  



	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m in college and i’m lonely i’m lonely i’m so lonely and I’m thinking about how link had rhett and rhett had link like they never had to worry about this they were always there for each other and I’m just
> 
> impatient to post this; my lovely beta (folo her on tumblr @pringlesaremydivision) hasn’t had a chance to touch this cause my filthy impatient fingers snatched it away!!! it’s messy, therefore but hey, can’t have the constant update and  
> wait  
> we don’t have that either

 

Link woke to find that Rhett had already awoken. Upon opening his bleary eyes, Link was, because he’d naturally turned to face Rhett in his sleep, instantly faced with the sight of him. The sight of him looking up at the ceiling, blinking his eyes closed slowly a few times as he stared up, and Link stared at him.   
  
It was weird, Link thought, Rhett being so far away on the bed. Link had almost started looking forward to that bit of allowed cuddling in the mornings, when they were both still sleep-addled and things were just that bit easier.    
  
Almost like scratching an itch, the act of extending his hand over the empty space between them to lightly touch Rhett’s bare shoulder gave Link an instant sort of peace of mind.    
  
“G’morning,” Link mumbled when Rhett’s gaze snapped to the hand on his shoulder. And where Link would once instantly retract his hand, he now kept it on Rhett’s shoulder, tracing small circles with the tip of his index finger, dragging it over the faint freckles there. 

 

Rhett sighed before replying with a quiet, “Good morning,” voice groggy and raspy and something that Link had never been able to identify, but knew he liked.

 

“You okay?” Link asked, scooting up to Rhett in bed. With a quick glance at him, Rhett moved away to sit up.   
  
“Yeah,” Rhett said, turning away as he sat on the edge of the bed, “Fine.”  
  
“Last night…” Link began, then paused to wince a little, “It didn’t make things… weird… between us?”  
  
Rhett sat there silently for a moment before craning his neck, not enough to look over his shoulder at Link, but enough to present Link with his profile. “Nah, you mean, like, the kiss? It didn’t make things… it was… it wasn’t… uncool.”  
  
Link grinned. “So we’re cool?” he asked, knowing that he sounded all too hopeful. A small part of his brain, completely unrelatedly, also piped up with: _The kiss was cool?_   
Because it was cool. Link thought it had been very cool.  
  
Rhett pressed his lips together tightly and nodded, but then turned his head away again.   
  
Link gulped. “What are you doing today?” he took a moment to clear his throat, “I mean, uh, later today. I mean like. Lunch. What are you doing for lunch?” he rambled.

 

Rhett finally turned to fully face Link, by getting up off the bed and standing at the foot of it. “I don’t know. Having lunch?” he asked, sounding like he was trying to mock Link, but his lips betrayed him by tugging up and into the smallest smile. “Why, you wanna eat together?”    
  
Link nodded. “Yeah, thought we could maybe, go sit with Jill and, y’know…”   
  
It took less than a millisecond for Rhett’s inkling of a good mood to visibly deflate. “Yeah,” he said curtly, before turning away to head over to the wardrobe. In a flash, he was turning back toward Link, and had one accusatory finger pointed at him. His brow furrowed only slightly, he gaped at Link for a moment before saying: “We should have breakfast together.”   
  
Link looked up at him and then nodded quickly. “Sure, yeah!” he rushed to say, a bit confused by Rhett’s sudden suggestion, but not unhappy about it. Quite the contrary, actually.    
  
“O-” Rhett lowered his finger slowly, his face steadily darkening in a blush, “Okay. Yeah. I’ll meet you downstairs.” Rhett said, pulled on a t-shirt (which Link was pretty sure was one of his own, but didn’t alert Rhett of it), and shot out of the door before Link could properly react to anything Rhett had said.    
  
Link got out of the bed as slowly as was possible and took a moment to stretch out. Rhett was so sweet for wanting to have breakfast together. It was not something they’d tried faking yet — in fact, Link thought that there were many things Link was eager to try and fake with Rhett, some of which he was not yet ready to bring up, even to himself.    
  
Link donned one of his favourite shirts — and then changed his mind, and donned instead one of his favourite shirts of Rhett’s. Two could play at that game, Link thought, wearing a face-splitting grin as he pulled his head through the collar of Rhett’s henley. It was not too big on him, just slightly longer than his usual shirts. But oversized was in, anyway, so Link couldn’t say that he minded. It smelled good, too. Not overly good, mostly just like laundry detergent, but it also smelled a little like Rhett. Rhett wasn’t always too pleasant-smelling, but Link, in a perverse way, even liked the stinky sort of Rhett-smell.   
  
Something he could catch a waft of when he put the shirt on, but then it was gone, and Link was forced to wipe the stupid smile it put on his face off. He picked out a pair of pants — from his own side of the closet, this time — and put those on as well, something Rhett hadn’t bothered to do. Now, Rhett and Link had been dressed most of the time, unlike their neighbours, who Link knew wouldn’t mind Rhett’s half nudity, exactly because they walked around in a similar fashion all the time. Link was pretty sure that Angelo once crossed the distance between the kitchen and their room naked, but he couldn’t be completely sure — unfortunately, he’d caught him at it just a moment before the door to his bedroom shut behind him. So, yes, anyway. He was sure they wouldn’t mind. Rhett and him were, when he actually thought about it, the most decent couple out of the three couples that occupied the building. They were dressed at all times, they didn’t occupy the public spaces in affectionate ways, in fact there was really no PDA displayed in front of anyone (or when they were alone, for that matter), not to mention that they were the quietest. Especially at night.    
  
  
Link slid into a pair of slippers and made his way through the door, following in Rhett’s footsteps.    
  
“... it’s not even that hard,” he heard a female voice say as he climbed down the stairs, “Just like, have some peanut butter on your bread instead of-”   
  
Miri stopped in the middle of her sentence when she noticed Link, and smiled up at him. “Hello. Are you interested in going vegan too?”   
  
Link looked between her and Rhett, who was looking back at him, not his face, but his shirt. Link smirked, and tried to pay him no mind.    
  
“Uh, haven’t really thought about it,” Link said to be polite, and Miri grinned at him.   
  
“Well, give it some thought. You’d be surprised at what it can do to heal the earth, and you,” she said, and then grinned at Rhett before sauntering away and up the stairs.   
  
Link waited for the sound of Miri’s room’s door shutting to speak up. “What’s a vegan?”

 

There was a sound that scared him, then, of the toast jumping up in the toaster.   
  
Rhett chuckled and went to pluck his slices of toast out. “It’s someone who doesn’t eat animals or their products, bo,” Rhett informed him knowingly.    
  
Link nodded, but then his face scrunched up in confusion.  _ “How?” _ _  
_   
Rhett laughed then, and shrugged his shoulders. “It doesn’t sound that hard, actually. But I couldn’t do it. If only for the fact that turning gay in the same week as turning vegan might be a bit too much for those around me.”   
  
Link tried speaking but suddenly found that his throat was quite dry. He cleared his throat before mumbling, “Turning gay?”   
  
Rhett stared back at him before chuckling nervously. “You know what I mean.”   
  
“Yeah, but you mean like, in the same month, cause we-”   
  
“Yeah, yeah,” Rhett quickly dismissed it and went to reach for the peanut butter. Link observed him with a smile, fixing his shirt up a little.    
  
This drew Rhett’s attention to said shirt, and as if having just remembered something, he raised his eyebrows and spoke. “Nice shirt.”   
  
Link smirked. “Thanks. I could say the same thing,” he said, grinning goofily as Rhett looked down at himself and promptly blushed.    
  
“Oh, sorry,” Rhett said, laughing a little, “I totally didn’t even notice.”   
  
Link stood closer and put a hand on his shoulder, “I  _ totally _ don’t  _ even _ mind,” Link said, his enunciation of the words making Rhett smile. “And it totally seems like more than Miri’s eating habits are rubbing up on you.”    
  
“Mhm,” Rhett mumbled, twisting the lid off the jar, “I  _ literally _ can’t stop speaking like this,” Rhett said, taking a long moment to pause after saying literally, if only to stress it more.    
  
Link moved his hand off Rhett’s shoulder and dipped a finger into the jar Rhett was holding.

 

“I totally get what you mean,” Link whispered, and smiled conspiratorially up at Rhett before stuffing the finger in his mouth and licking the peanut butter clean off.   
  
Rhett was looking down at him with a smile, which made Link feel antsy, but in a new, sort of good way.    
“California doesn’t sound that bad,” Rhett then said, with a shrug of one shoulder.   
  
Link gasped exaggeratedly, and raised one campy hand up to his heart. “Blasphemy,” he breathed theatrically, before his breaths dissolved into laughter.   
  
Rhett shook his head, smiling. “I’m telling you, man.”   
  
With his hand still clutching his heart, Link whispered, “But it’s not better than  _ enne-cee _ ?” he nasalized, which made Rhett laugh.   
  
“If Charles Neal the second could step out for a moment, I’d like my Link back,” Rhett teased, which made Link put his lips together in the smallest smile, above which his cheeks were reddening.    
  
“Why? You gunna take him to California, boy?” Link, who was previously not in character, was now fully there, and spoke suddenly in a heavy southern accent.    
  
Rhett shrugged, lips pulled up in a smile, and seeing him made Link feel so  _ much  _ — so much of so many things, none of which he could put a finger to. He wanted to smack Rhett. And hug him.    
But looking at him would suffice.    
  
“I just might,” Rhett said easily, smile never faltering, eyes never leaving Link’s own. “It’s where the entertainment business is at,” Rhett said simply.   
  
Link bit his lip and nodded. Feeling like he was back to his usual self, he leaned against the counter and nodded, his smile turning a bit sad. “It’s where we’ll get jobs, fresh outta freaking engineering school,” he said sarcastically, but Rhett didn’t let him believe otherwise for a second:   
  
“It’s where they’ll discover you,” he said, looking away from Link then and busying himself with buttering his toast. “First as a model, and then you’ll move onto filming commercials. Those will be enough for a while, but then I’ll get fired from my boring job and you’ll have to support me through my crazy script-writing phase,” Rhett looked up at Link just in time to see his smile become embarrassingly wide, bit his own smiling lip, and looked back down at his toast. “I don’t wanna get too into it, but let’s just say that by the end of 2020 we’ll have written and starred in our own movie, or something.”   
  
Link huffed, which seemed like the most he could do without embarrassing himself by doing something like tearing up. “2020,” he repeated, sounding the year out like it was the most ludicrous sequence of numbers in the world, “Who knows where we’ll be by then.”   
  
“California,” Rhett said, shooting a quick grin up at Link.    
  
Link took another bite of the peanut butter and deliberated slowly, “Will we be vegan, Nostradamus? It’s totally where all the vegan people are at,” Link gave the Cali accent one last mock as he unstuck his finger from his mouth.    
  
Rhett smiled down at his toast, and never answered Link’s question. “It’s where all the gay people are at,” he said instead.    
  
Link bit his own lip. “Nuh-uh.” Link countered, smiling so hard at Rhett that his cheeks hurt. His eyes felt a bit more damp than usual. “They’re all over the country,” Link said, and his voice lowered to a mutter when he added, “Case in point.”    
  
“Careful,” Rhett warned him, and all Link could do was giggle, even if his eyes threatened to overflow.   
  
Rhett looked at him, then, with the tiniest smile on his lips, and Link didn’t know what he was feeling, but just standing there, with Rhett, in their kitchen, made him feel like part of something. Maybe not part of all the gay people in the world, but maybe just that. Because what Link wanted to do then was not smack Rhett, or hug him. Well, actually, the hug wasn’t something he would necessarily pass up on, but — Link wanted to kiss him.    
  
And that was his cue. Like they were of their own mind, his feet led him away from Rhett and towards one of the farther cupboards, from where he would get himself a slice or two of toast. Even with his back turned to Rhett, he could still sense him standing there, leaning against the cupboards as he ate his toast standing. Link would eat standing too. For the both of them, pulling up a chair was almost as agonizing as dirtying dishes. It was so much effort. Was it not? Plus, the crumbs would get on the table, and then they’d have to wipe those off, all for a slice of toast...   
  
These were the kind of thoughts Link chose to busy himself with for the moment.    
  
What took his mind off Rhett for the next moment were the voices coming from the other end of the room. As the pair the voices belonged to exited their room, Link realised that the pair were Angel and Angelo. From the fragments of sentences he’d picked up on, he could infer that Angelo was about to go somewhere, probably a class, and Angel walked with him to the door to see him off. The end of the conversation came with way too many uses of the word care, and then abruptly stopped when there was a sound Link could only describe as sudden and  _ wet. _ He turned to look, and was presented with the sight of them sucking each other’s faces off. It was one hell of a goodbye kiss — one that went on for a while, and made Link have to look away.

 

Link was, for some reason, feeling the urge to chance a glance at Rhett. So he did.   
  
Rhett had his eyes fixed on the pair, but looked neither entranced nor disgusted. In fact, he displayed no emotion, and no sort of interest, just looked on, and on. Link looked at Rhett, to the soundtrack of the longest smooch in the universe, all until he heard words again, meaning that the couple separated, and he snapped his head forward so as not to be caught looking at Rhett by Rhett himself.    
  
By the time Link was biting into his toast, Angel was starting to make her way over to them. With a cheerful “hello!” to the two of them, she stood next to Rhett, and Link suddenly remembered how underdressed Rhett was. Link wondered if Rhett had noticed that too, ‘cause as it seemed to Link — he hadn’t; maybe he had, but was just unruffled by it. Rhett may have been unaffected, but Link could barely stand looking at Rhett, only in his underwear, standing so close to a girl. It was the second-hand embarrassment, most probably.   
  
Maybe Angel noticed that Link was otherwise preoccupied, and that’s why she spoke to Rhett first.    
  
She was very pretty, Link noted.    
  
Link wasn’t even sure what they talked about — something about not leaving coursework for the last moment, and then, conversely, some party they had both heard of and could use to procrastinate on the more boring coursework they had.    
  
Tall, with unconventionally strong-looking arms and a broad back that tapered into a slender waist — Angel had the body that both guys and girls could dream of. Beside the fact that she seemed overly interested in Rhett, Link couldn’t really find a flaw, there wasn’t anything else that irked him about her.    
  
Speaking of Rhett, and her in the context of Rhett, Link once again noted how pretty she was. She would have looked good on Rhett’s arm. This was something Link didn’t really let himself think about: even if Link had Jill, sort of, now — that didn’t mean that Rhett had or would give up any other girl for him. Rhett had a plethora of other options, and maybe his taste weren’t girls who were practically married, but, who knew?    
Link certainly didn’t, and he had realised earlier that he really couldn’t think of a girl who would pass up on Rhett.    
  
Which, he now realised, may have said more about him than the girls. Which,  _ he now realised, _ had been one of the underlying reasons he had decided to pursue Jill a bit more purposefully. Even if he hadn’t known it then, and still completely doesn’t understand now.    
  
Because these weird and newfound feelings regarding Rhett must have just been a mix of loneliness and subsequent projection of any romantic feelings onto the one who was closest to him. If he had a girl, this wouldn’t have come about. He’d never have, in a million years, thought about kissing Rhett. The things he thought he wanted to do to Rhett were really things he wanted to do to Jill, Link concluded, it would just take a bit of time for him to sort that out, and fully convince himself.    
  
“Nice seeing you, Link,” Angel said, smiling widely at him, her bright teeth peeking between her plump lips in a pretty way, making Link smile despite himself.   
  
“You too,” he said. As she turned to leave, he folded his slice of toast in half and stuck the remainder of his breakfast into his mouth.    
  
Once his cheeks were as round as a chipmunk’s, he turned to look at Rhett, who was looking at him bemusedly. Link bunched his swollen cheeks up in a smile, which made Rhett huff out a laugh.   
  
“Don’t choke,” Rhett warned him in a voice that suggested that he was hoping for the opposite. Jaw set and eyes hard, Rhett pushed off the counter and walked past him. Link took a moment to take a swig of milk from the bottle on the counter, and upon emptying it replaced it in its usual spot. Usually he’d have bothered to throw the bottle away, but now he followed Rhett with his eyes halfway up the stairs, and then rushed to follow with the rest of his body.    
  
“Some breakfast,” Link teased, finally pointing out something he’d tried not to think of. Yes, he’d justified to himself why Rhett might not want to sit with him — the effort, the mess, the dang crumbs — and thought of everything else that would completely ridicule the notion that, maybe, Link was led to expect something a bit more… romantic.    
  
But it made sense that it wasn’t like that. Why would it be?   
  
Rhett waited till he was at the top of the stairs to turn and respond to Link. “Should I have invited Angel to eat with us?”    
  
Link gaped at Rhett, unsure of how to respond. Was Rhett — did Rhett think —   
  
Link wasn’t attracted to Angel. Yes, he recognised how pretty she was, and he’d been thinking about it when she showed up and… Oh.   
Now that he dialled back, he realised that he hadn’t just been thinking. With the thinking came the staring, and even if all he saw was red, it may not have looked like that to Rhett.    
  
Before he could get the chance to splutter an answer in which he would try his darndest to avoid such themes as jealousy, Link was stopped by a certain… sound. From the other side of Brax and Miri’s door came a broken-off, high-pitched moan, which even as surprising as it was, sounded so intense it nearly made Link shiver.    
Link dared only one look at Rhett. In that second, all the blood seemed to have rushed to Rhett’s face, and Link knew the colour of his own face matched Rhett’s down to the last nuance.    
_  
_ _ “Oh, Brax, fuck me!”  _   
  
“No,” Link breathed before he could think about it. His mouth still in the shape of an “o” from the earlier “no”, Link turned on his heel to walk over to the door of their room. The only thing he could hear was the blood rushing to his ears, and the only thing he could see was the door in front of him, something that would bring him further away from being in this situation with Rhett. They’d heard the sounds before, but never so clearly, never so loudly, they were never as present to it and most importantly, they never acknowledged it in front of one another. This time, it seemed unavoidable, but Link was adamant on avoiding it.   
  
After entering their own room, he held the door open, because he could still feel that Rhett had followed him. 

 

Link crossed the room quickly, before pacing back and forth, and back again so that he could sit on the edge of the bed.    
  
Rhett, who’d closed the door, was standing there, leaning against it.    
  
“Wow. Well,” Rhett began, and trailed off, never to finish.    
  
Link nodded slowly, and then shook his head. When he looked up at Rhett, Rhett was looking up and smirking, and Link had to admit that more than anything, it was pretty funny.   
  
“It’s like second-hand porn,” Link blurted, making Rhett laugh.   
  
“You mean first-hand porn,” Rhett said, then quieted for a moment before adding, “Like second-hand sex.”   
  
Link gulped. It was all he could do. The reason they never talked about it was obvious in the look they shared then: wide-eyed and wide-pupiled, open-mouthed yet quiet.    
  
Like stung by electricity, Link turned his gaze away, and gulped again, for good measure. The reason they never acknowledged it would become even more obvious when Link opened his mouth not to breathe heavily, but to speak.    
  
“Everyone’s so lovey-dovey,” he muttered, turning his face up to look at Rhett. Link squeezed his hands into fists and made himself stand up, then. He took a moment to relax his hands, to let some of the tension in his arms go, before speaking again. “Y’know, except us.”   
  
Rhett looked at him with a bewildered expression on his face. “What?”   
  
“I’m just saying,” Link said, and tried to make his shaky walk toward Rhett casual. “We might want to…” he began, before taking a moment to settle next to Rhett, leaning against the wall by the door, “Do stuff like that.”   
  
Rhett’s eyes widened, but there was no raging outburst that part of Link had been fearing.    
  
All Rhett did, was gulp. “What do you suggest we do?” he then asked, meeting Link’s eyes only when he’d mumbled the question out.    
  
Link shrugged one shoulder, “I mean, not a lot of that stuff. Not… all the way. Ahem. Just enough to sell the idea… Y’know.”   
  
“Okay,” Rhett said softly, but Link was rambling on:   
  
“I mean we’ve already kissed so… It won’t be awkward.”   
  
“It  _ will _ be awkward,” Rhett countered with a smile, which made Link breathe out a short, relieved laugh.   
  
“Yeah,” Link said, “But we can practice.”   
  
“Yeah,” Rhett’s voice had gone all soft, “Like with the pet names,  _ baby?” _ _  
_   
Even if the “baby” sounded a tad sarcastic, Link stiffened so as to suppress a shiver. “Mhm,” he confirmed, shifting his eyes away from Rhett’s.    
  
“Okay,” Rhett confirmed, and Link looked up, cracking a small smile. He knew he shouldn’t be smiling, but it was stronger than him. He was happy, and he couldn’t believe that it was that easy to get Rhett to agree to this.    
  
Link was man enough to admit that he wanted to relive that kiss, with not a drop of liquor affecting his experience, with no girl supervising them. Just him and Rhett, alone together, in their bedroom. It was not gay, it was novel, a new experience Link was eager to relive. Maybe it was weird, but it had been pleasant, and he knew that Rhett and him were good enough friends to let this unfold as it wanted to. The more that he thought about it, about the lack of alcohol at this particular time, he wondered if Rhett would even want to kiss him sober. Link himself had been mostly sober when he kissed Rhett, and he didn’t think it was a big deal in a bad sense, but Rhett might have felt differently and could still refuse him at any moment. Plus, Link had asked for practice, after all, and practice might not mean kissing, at least not right away.   
Link really wanted a kiss, though. He hadn’t thought much of it in the moment, which he just took to enjoy the sensation, but it had been on his mind ever since it happened.    
The logical course seemed to be to try and push Rhett out of his mind by introducing it to more thoughts of Jill, but that didn’t seem to work, cause, in the end, he was back here, looking up at Rhett, wanting another taste of him. 

 

And, uh, when had Rhett moved — ? With his face directly above Link’s, and one of his arms above Link’s head, propping Rhett up against the wall, Link found that he couldn’t breathe as easily. 

 

Link bit his bottom lip, both to try to calm himself and draw Rhett’s attention to it. And when Rhett’s eyes flicked down to look at that lip, Link knew he’d succeeded in at least one of his intentions.    
  
Rhett looked down at him like he was taking in every detail on Link’s face, and Link was blushing profusely. His own eyes darted between Rhett’s eyes and his lips, and all over his face from his chin-strap to his buzzed head of hair. He found himself leaning in towards Rhett, but he would freeze in place when Rhett spoke.    
  
“You wanna try kissing?” Rhett asked in a whisper, and Link gave him a shaky nod. He extended one hand up and placed it on Rhett’s cheek, and Rhett leaned into it, drawing himself closer until he was close enough to meet Link in a gentle kiss.    
  
Link ran his hand up Rhett’s cheek, the edge of his jaw and his ear, all the way to the back of his head. The hand that Rhett wasn’t using to lean against the wall settled on Link’s waist, the touch so gentle it tickled, making Link smile and break out in goose bumps.    
  
Unintentionally, Link broke the kiss by pulling away a little, smiling as he took a moment to take it in. Eyes closed and his nose so close to Rhett’s own that they brushed against one another when either of them moved, Link took a deep breath, and revelled in the feeling of Rhett running his hand down to the small of Link’s back.   
  
Link opened his eyes slightly, but didn’t look up at Rhett. Focusing his lidded eyes on the beauty mark above Rhett’s lip, he whispered: “Kiss me again.”   
  
Rhett didn’t waste a single moment in complying, which was one of the reasons Link loved him so. Wait, no —   
  
Link was so jittery he broke the kiss again. He felt bad, and leaned away from Rhett to rest his head against the wall. Panting, he muttered, “Sorry.”   
  
Rhett just shook his head with a patient smile. Rhett was so gentle to him, and so patient with him —   
  
Rhett cleared his throat, and Link’s eyes widened in anticipation. Would Rhett tell him he liked the way Link kissed?   
  
“You think that will be believable?” Rhett asked softly, and Link blinked his eyes a few times as he thought the question over.   
  
“No,” he said, then, and quickly regretted it. “I mean. I don’t know.”   
  
Rhett nodded, gaze seemingly unable to settle anywhere (Link just wanted Rhett’s eyes to settle on his own). “Well, we could try again,” Rhett said nonchalantly, and Link would try his best to match that nonchalance.   
  
Over the raucous beating of his heart, Link let his excited breath hitch for a moment before he spoke.    
  
“Sure, if you want-”   
  
Link was cut off by Rhett’s lips immediately pressing against his own. He kissed back gingerly before pulling himself up a bit, pressing his body closer to Rhett’s.   
  
Rhett disconnected and reconnected their lips in a series of gentle kisses, and Link melted in his arms. Rhett’s kisses were slow and deliberate, close-mouthed and soft, sweet, and, Link decided, the best kisses he had received to date.    
  
When Rhett moved, Link moved with him, and when Rhett’s hand grazed the skin of Link’s side where his shirt had ridden up, Link moved away. Because the touch of Rhett’s pleasantly rough fingers made Link’s warm skin feel scalding, made almost all of his blood rush to his neck and up —  _ almost _ all of it. The rest rushed south. But really, if he hadn’t been pressed against Rhett’s thigh, Link wouldn’t have been as quick to find himself getting hard.    
“Oh,” Link said, pulling his hands away and bringing them to the hem of his — well, Rhett’s, but temporarily his — shirt, which he pulled down as far as it would go. “Gosh.”   
  
“Yeah,” Rhett said, looking down at him. They stood there, Rhett with his mouth open, looking almost like he wanted to say something more, but didn’t. Link didn’t give him a lot of time to decide if he would speak; unfortunately, he wasn’t as patient as Rhett.   
  
“I think I should get ready for class,” Link said, and then made the effort to frown — all he really wanted to do was smile until he was dead. Even if the situation turned a bit embarrassing, and even if he was longing to get away from Rhett, Link, overall, felt pretty good. “Don’t you have class now?”    
  
Like waking up from a dream, Rhett’s eyes unfocused from Link’s face, and he shook his head before stepping away. “Yeah, uh, probably. Crap, what time is it?”   
  
Link waddled over to the nightstand to check the time, and then sat on the bed, pulling his shirt a bit further down and keeping his hands in his lap, making sure Rhett wouldn’t notice the small tent to the front of his pants before he spoke. Or after he spoke. Rhett would just have to live his life not ever knowing about this, Link decided.    
  
“Quarter past,” Link said, and then quickly added, “Ten. Quarter past ten.”   
  
“Fuck,” Rhett breathed, and Link couldn’t say that hearing that helped his penis calm down. Quite the contrary.    
  
Link breathed a sigh of relief when Rhett didn’t focus too much on him, but rather turned away to go and acquire a pair of pants. Link tried not to look at Rhett (or Rhett’s boxer-clad ass) walking around the room, averting his eyes as he tried to find a comfortable position to sit in. He occupied himself with trying to sit so as not to harm himself, but also so as not to reward his dick and make it think that this was okay. On a certain level, it felt more than okay, but Link thought it would take a lot more thinking about it before he could decide where to take any of this.   
  
Rhett found his pants, and then his bag, and then his socks, and before long he was opening the door to their room, holding his bag in his arms like one would hold a small child, the corner of his jacket tucked into the waistband of his sweatpants. Rhett leaned against the door after opening it and paused to look back at Link, who could only think of cursing his unrelenting boner, yet shot Rhett a pleasant smile.    
  
Rhett gave him the smallest, most nervous smile, and Link understood the sentiment completely.   
  
“I’ll see you at lunch?” Rhett asked, and Link nodded, beaming.    
  
“Yeah,” he confirmed, “See you later.”   
  
“See ya,” Rhett said, still standing there and smiling. After a moment, like he’d just snapped out of it, he rushed out of the room and let the door slam shut behind him.    
  
Link threw himself back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling, thinking how lonely he must be to have all these feelings for Rhett.   
  
All day he waited for lunch. For Jill, because she was the one he truly wanted, after all. Nevermind the fact that he’d probably not go if Rhett couldn’t make it.    
  
It was just that he couldn’t do it without Rhett. It was the way he felt about many things in life. Rhett was so close to him, so dear to him. Link loved him, and now that the line between that love being platonic and romantic had blurred (almost into inexistence) it was natural for him to be confused about what it all meant. Surely, some time alone with a girl, with the most perfect girl of all, would help to turn him away from Rhett. Not completely, because he knew he couldn’t do without Rhett, but just a little, to make him see that all he was, was lonely. Even if having Rhett meant never actually feeling lonely.    
  
Ever since the kiss, Link saw Rhett with new eyes. Still, the thought of entertaining the idea of being with Rhett in  _ that _ way was ludicrous.  _ As if _ Rhett would ever actually like him in that sense.   
  
Link didn’t have any classes in the morning, but he knew Rhett’s schedule by heart, and knew when Rhett would be heading over to the cafeteria for lunch. It was just minutes before then that he revisited his entire bathroom routine, thought of changing into a fancier shirt but ended up keeping Rhett’s shirt on, and headed over to the patio. He was too nervous to actually eat, but passed through the cafeteria just to see if Rhett was there, and was fortunate enough to spot him in line.    
  
When he approached him, Link smiled goofily, and was interrupted before he could even utter a “hello”.   
  
“Hey, pal,” someone from behind Link tried to get his attention, “No skipping in line.”   
  
“Oh I’m not-” Link rushed to say, but stopped breathing, let alone talking, when he felt Rhett’s hand on his bicep.    
  
“He’s with me,” Rhett said ominously, looking at the guy with such an intense look in his eyes that Link feared that Rhett was ready to beat the guy up.   
  
The guy seemed to have picked up on that as well.   
  
When Rhett asked, “Is there a problem?”,  _ The Guy _ averted his gaze with a huff, but spoke no more. 

 

“Hey,” Rhett then turned to face Link and immediately cracked a smile. It reminded Link of how his mother could easily slip into pleasant conversation with anyone after reprimanding Link for what seemed like hours at a time.    
  
Seeing Rhett’s face, Link wouldn’t continue thinking about his mother, or anyone else but him, for long. “Hey,” Link parroted lamely, feeling a blush creep onto his cheeks. He wanted to slap himself, wanted to will it away. He didn’t know what would will away the restless, prickly feeling of yearning that spread over his skin. Except, maybe, kissing Rhett again.    
  
Or, Link suggested to himself, how about he stopped thinking about that one. Jill was most likely outside, and it was time to start thinking about kissing her. Turning away from Rhett, looking anywhere else, seemed to be the easiest thing to do, so he did it.    
  
It was almost as if, in his periphery, he could see Rhett moving nervously, like he shared some of Link’s restlessness. But even with that, Rhett still didn’t try to spark up a conversation, so all they did was wait their turn to get served before heading out to the patio in companionable silence.    
  
She was there. Of course she was, Link knew that on a day like this, she would be.    
  
Link stopped in the middle of the patio, and Rhett walked on for a step before stopping and turning around to look at Link with an expression so bewildered it almost made Link laugh.    
  
“Should I go-” Link began, and took a moment to think of what he wanted to ask, “You wanna go sit with Jill, like, right away?”   
  
Rhett was quiet for a moment. Then he was quiet for another moment, which he took to look down at his feet before looking back up at Link. Rhett coughed awkwardly. “Jill?” he asked in a weird voice, narrowing his eyes as if he was struggling to recall just who she was, exactly.   
  
Link cracked an amused smile. “Miss Perfect?” he asked, furrowing his brow.    
  
“Oh… Right,” Rhett said, “Well, if you want to…”   
  
Link regarded Rhett for a moment, eyes narrowed. “Yeah,” he said, “C’mon.” Link had no time to think of why Rhett was being weird, or if he was being weird at all. Maybe he really couldn’t remember Miss Perfect’s name, for some reason. He sidestepped Rhett and moved toward Jill’s table, and then easily sat across from her. He found that with all his fussing, he actually wasn’t that nervous around her. A big chunk of that was due to the fact that if she shunned him, he’d be fine. It’s not like he’d be relieved, or anything, it’s more that he wouldn’t really care a lot, which was good. Made him more courageous.    
  
“Hi,” he said, grinning. Rhett took his sweet time in joining him — it was not after Jill responded with her own greeting that Rhett scooted up to him on the bench.    
  
“Hi,” Rhett said as well, and then just looked at her quietly as Link asked about how she was, what she had been up to and if her courses were going well. When she started talking about one of her roommate’s newest escapades, Link felt Rhett lower his hand down onto the bench, right next to Link’s hip. Rhett rested it there, barely touching Link, yet Link could feel the gentle press of his hand almost too well.    
  
And then, Link stopped to think about why he was where he was in that moment, for the fifth time that day. He thought about the way Rhett had kissed him, and listed off reasons why he couldn’t just drag Rhett away somewhere private and kiss him some more. And then, he reminded himself that where he was was exactly where he was supposed to be: he needed Miss Perfect. Jill. He needed her, to distract himself, to remind himself there was life outside of Rhett. Because Rhett could never share these confusing feelings, and, anyway, Link wasn’t sure what those were about, as he’d told himself on multiple occasions. All Rhett did was put his hand down onto the bench, accidentally brushing against Link, and Link thought it was a blessing he was privileged to have received.    
Most likely it was a good old case of just falling for someone who was… accessible. Like, Link knew why in his freshman year, people were warned not to hook up with their house-or-room-mates; because it would have been easiest and most tempting to hook up with them. Especially, Link felt, if your roommate was Rhett freaking Mclaughlin.    
  
Jill was not his roommate. Jill was his gorgeous, smart, charming non-roommate, who was also going on about something that Link couldn’t pay attention to, because Rhett’s hand was still where it had been a few seconds ago. Which reminded Link of when it was on his waist, or when he woke up with it draped over his chest.    
  
“Jill,” Link rushed to speak, possibly cutting her off, “What are you doing tonight?”   
  


Rhett put his hands up onto the table when she replied that she, in fact, had no plans for the evening.    
  
Link gulped, deciding to ignore the heavy feeling in his gut. “Would you like to go out with me?”   
  
Rhett made an excuse to go away, then. Jill would later agree to Link’s proposal, looking overjoyed that he’d asked.    
  
Link thought that Rhett’s departure was suspicious, in a way that just added to how weird he’d been acting all day. Rhett had muttered something about having to go to the library before it closed, which it wouldn’t for the subsequent seven or so hours, before picking his bag up off the floor and walking away from the table without a single backwards glance.    
  
If he was changing his mind about Jill and Link, he should have told Link. Link would be fine with just being her friend. Was that, somehow, not obvious to Rhett?   
  
Link adored him, but he had to admit that Rhett could be pretty obtuse.    
  
—   
  
It was eighteen minutes before Link would have to head over to Owen Hall when Rhett showed up. Link had previously returned to their bedroom only to find it empty, and hadn’t seen Rhett for the rest of the day. Once Rhett was in sight, Link felt his heartbeat pick up speed, and quickly crossed the room to see him up close. Excited and secretly relieved that Rhett seemed to be unharmed (Link had spent a lot of his time alone worrying), Link stopped himself a few feet away from Rhett and looked at him awkwardly.   
  
“Uh, you okay?” Rhett asked, shrugging his bag off his shoulders and leaving it on the floor.   
  
“Yeah,” Link said, “No, yeah.” He raised one hand up to run it through his hair, as if to fix it. Rhett was still looking at him weirdly.   
  
“Guessing she said yes, then,” Rhett said, with a nod to Link’s outfit — he had donned a pair of his nicest jeans and a bright-blue button up that his mom always said brought out his eyes.    
“You look good,” Rhett said quickly before turning away to take his jacket off and hang it by the door.    
  
Link could feel the heat rising in his face, and looked down at his feet as he shuffled them awkwardly. “Not as good as she will look,” he thought out loud, eyes flicking up to watch Rhett fumble with his jacket.   
  
Rhett scoffed, and then did a double take as if to check if Link was seriously insecure — which Link could tell him that he was. Rhett didn’t say anything, only looked at him like Link was crazy. Link wanted to kiss him.   
  
Rhett walked past him and toward the closet, stopping in front of it to run his fingers down the shelves on Link’s side of it. “You sure you don’t wanna borrow some of my clothes, though?” Rhett then asked, and when Link turned towards him, he was welcomed by Rhett’s shit-eating grin.    
  
“Ha ha,” Link droned, but his smile betrayed him.    
  
Rhett’s grin only widened in response. “Just saying, they are better lookin’...”   
  
Link shook his head, “Thanks for the offer.” The clock said 13 minutes until he’d have to go down and meet Jill, and Link still needed to pick up the flowers he’d gotten her from downstairs — he kept them in the fridge, a tip he’d received from Gregg, which, he knew didn’t sound like the best thing. But even if the advice came from Gregg, Link couldn’t see why it wouldn’t work in keeping the roses fresh.    
  
In any case, Link had to go, yet found himself standing in the room, looking at Rhett.    
  
“I’ll see you later,” Link finally said, for lack of anything better.   
  
Rhett nodded and pressed his lips together. “Yep. See ya,” he said, and walked over to their desks. Link turned away and walked off, wondering what Rhett would be doing while he was away.    
  
Link was glad that walking was so automatic — just one foot in front the other — because had he needed to actively think about it while doing it, he would have crashed into something. All he thought of was Rhett.    
Not in an obsessive way. He was just dying to know what Rhett was up to and would be up to while he was gone. Yes, he always thought of this when he wasn’t in the company of Rhett, but this time he was all the more curious, because he was conscious of the fact that he was going to see a girl. Maybe this would give Rhett ideas, and Rhett would go and do the same, or worse, maybe he’d bring a girl over to their home.    
  
There was no girl in sight when Link ran back into their kitchen to look for the flowers he’d forgotten to take. This meant running back to Jill’s in record time, if he wanted to be on time.    
  
And he made it. Weaving his way through Owen corridors until he found the room she had said she was in, Link tried to focus on straightening out his clothes and smoothing back his hair.   
  
When he knocked, the door was opened for him in a second, but at first he didn’t understand who’d opened the door. Jill had been sitting on her bed, and now stood up to welcome Link — it was only when Link stepped into the room that he noticed Jill’s roommate, who was behind the door, rummaging through what looked like a bag of lipsticks, too busy to linger by the door once she’d opened it.    
  
“Hey!” Jill greeted him happily, taking his attention away from the other girl in the room.    
  
“Hey.” Link smiled widely and stuck the flowers out in front of him just when he noticed that Jill had her arms slightly open like she was going to go for a hug. His smile faltered a little, but she didn’t seem to think anything of the hug Link had stupidly, accidentally declined.    
  
“Thank you!” Jill was beaming, and called for her roommate in a squeak when she was handed the flowers, which she proceeded to clutch to her chest.    
  
The roommate, whose name was Jess, turned to face Jill and extended a hand to touch one of the roses.    
  
_ Jess, _ Link thought, suddenly puzzled by why that sounded so out of place.    
  
Then, Jess turned her head slightly to look over her shoulder at the one who’d given Jill the flowers, and Link could read the surprise on her face undoubtedly as well as she could read the surprise on his.    
  
_ Oh, that Jess,  _ Link thought again, now having recalled how he knew her.    
  
“Hey,” Jess said, sticking a hand out for Link to shake, “I’m Jess.”   
  
All the colour had drained from Link’s face, and he stood there, as still as a corpse for a second, before he made himself snap out of it. “H-ey,” he stuttered out, extending his own hand, “Link. Nice to - nice to uh, meet ya.”   
  
“Nice to meet you too,” she said easily, but smirked in a way that let Link know there was no chance Jess had forgotten about their earlier encounter. He’d never have pinned her as Jill’s roommate, though.    
  


Speaking of Jill —  Link quickly turned his full attention to her.    
  
As anticipated, she did look better than Link, but not in the way Link had expected. It was just her natural beauty that usually graced her. She was, however, completely void of make-up, wearing a pyjama-like outfit, with her hair pulled up in a ponytail.   
  
“You need some time to get ready?” Link asked, with a nod to Jill’s outfit. And, oh, he realised that that mightn’t have sounded so nice. “Oh. Oh my God,” Link said then, spluttering to apologise, “I didn’t mean - You look lovely - I just thought -”   
  
All Jill did was giggle, “No worries. I’m not feeling my best, thought, so I thought we could just chill here?”   
  
“Don’t worry,” Link heard Jess pipe up from behind them and immediately turned to face her. He was still very anxious that she was here, who knows what Jill would think of him if Jess let anything slip. “I’ll be outta here in a sec, and you two will be free to get it on.”   
  
“Jess!” Jill gasped, “You know he’s taken,” she said with a giggle.    
  
Link grinned.   
  
“Didn’t stop his boyfriend,” Jess said, more to herself, but she was leaning in towards Link to make sure he was the only one who heard it, making Link’s grin fall away. “Anyway,” Jess said more loudly, then, and began to walk to the door, “I’ll see you later.”   
  
“See ya!” Jill said, waving, and waited for Jess to be out the door before she turned to Link.    
  
Jill smiled, and then took a moment to audibly sigh. “She’s so pretty, isn’t she?”   
  
Link broke out in a cold sweat. Was this a test? Was he supposed to give his opinion or turn this over into a compliment for Jill? Or, wait, did Jill know about him and Jess, and Rhett and Jess, and —    
  
Jill saved him by speaking again: “What would you think if we were together?”    
  
Link blanched. “You and… Jess?” Jill couldn’t have meant her and Link. Right? She couldn’t have.   
  
And she hadn’t. “Yeah.”   
  
“You want my honest opinion?” Link asked.    
  
“Yeah!” Jill said enthusiastically.   
  
“It’d be hot,” Link said, completely serious, and Jill laughed. Link had to laugh a little too. “Best get prepared for that reaction if you do decide to be with her.”   
  
Jill shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, well. She’d have to decide to be with me, too.”    
  
“Psh,” Link said, “She’d totally be with you.”    
  
Jill nodded and smiled at him. She got up to put her flowers on her desk, and Link followed her with his eyes. “You want something to drink?” she asked, and Link went for a can of Coke. Jill fished one out of the small fridge in their room — Link had almost forgotten about those. And how small regular dorm rooms were.   
  
“So. Um. How did you know about Rhett?” Jill asked as she handed him his drink and led him over to sit on her bed.   
  
“What do you mean?” Link asked, taking a small sip from his can.    
  
Jill laughed a little. “Sorry, I guess you can interpret that in more ways than one, and I guess I wanna know about every one of them. How did you know he was like you? That he could be into guys? And how did you know that he was the one you’d want to be with?”   
  
What a heavy question, Link thought.  Especially for a first date. But he found that he didn’t have much of a problem with answering.    
  
Link cleared his throat. “Well, I was very young when I realised that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I almost knew that I would. We were just kids when we essentially started planning for a married life together, not that we meant to. Just, looking back… I really see that it was different from how other boys behaved, and even more different from how we behaved with anyone else. It was always different, like, how I saw him. Different from any other person I’d ever met. Like, the adventures we had, things we did together just felt so natural. And whatever weird idea I had, and some were really weird, Rhett genuinely thought was great. And I thought he was great.”   
  
He paused for a bit, thinking that this was a strange thing to be talking about on what was supposed to be a date. But Jill looked like she wanted him to go on, and in truth, Link wanted to go on.   
  
“It’s like, our minds match up so well,” he said, smiling, “A great example is when we were about sixteen and we thought we were making art. All we did was take shirtless photos of each other. Got called pasty and weird and stupid for thinking we looked artsy. By Rhett’s brother, mostly. But I couldn’t get enough of thinking about what those photos meant. Rhett would go to some crazy embarrassing distances to make me happy.”   
  
Link didn’t even look for Jill to try and stop him before going on.    
  
“The things he says about me, so easily, like, almost accidentally. Always in the context of me in regards to others, never really directly, he’d call me smart and funny and beautiful and… I could say the same about him.”

  
Link had to stop talking about Rhett. This was becoming comical.    
  
“We kissed, like, just for practice,” Link’s blush darkened upon blurting it out. To save himself at least partly, he decided not to specify when that had happened. Jill looked interested in it, though, and he guessed that you could run something through your mind only so many times before it ran out of your mouth. Link sighed. “The way he kissed me, and held me, I just…”   
  
Jill nodded, lips curled up in a small grin.    
  
Link was too bashful to continue, and Jill took it upon herself to keep the conversation flowing.    
  
“Is he, uh, very... passionate?” she asked, and Link could see her struggle to find the appropriate adjective before she settled on ‘passionate’.    
  
It was the perfect adjective, in Link’s opinion. “Yeah,” he said, voice soft when he went on: “All he has to do is touch me and, like, I realise there’s nothing better.”    
  
“So, uh, when you guys…” Jill trailed off, and brought one hand up to her mouth to run an anxious fingernail over her bottom lip. “I hope this is not too weird. Can I ask you something kinda personal?”   
  
Link nodded eagerly. “Sure, go ahead.”   
  
“Well,” Jill began, “When you guys fuck…”   
  
Link’s cheeks reddened immediately. He felt like his head was about to explode. He wanted to stop Jill there, but was also very curious about where this question was going.   
  
“...Are you the one who’s, you know, on top?”   
The question sounded like it would lead up to another question, and then a whole lot more questions would open up. It was not somewhere Link was yet ready to go. Not something he could easily lie about.    
  
“I… don’t know,” Link said, and Jill nodded understandingly, thought Link could see she didn’t understand.   
  
“I don’t understand,” she said softly, and Link nodded. The conversation could have been labelled too personal for some, but these things that were private really weren’t as private in this situation, Link felt.    
  
So he’d try his best to explain. “Rhett and I,” he began, looking down at his hands for a moment, frowning as he tried to think of a way to phrase it. “We haven’t yet… made love.”   
  
When he looked back up, Jill’s mouth was in the form of an ‘o’.    
  
“Yeah,” Link confirmed.    
  
Jill gave him a small smile. “That’s perfectly okay,” she said, “are you guys waiting for —”   
  
Here’s where she stopped for a second, and Link knew why — the most common end to that question would have been the word ‘marriage’, but that was, in their case illegal. And frowned upon. And that, among many reasons, was why Link was here with Jill in the first place.   
  


“— a special occasion?” she asked, and Link appreciated the effort of her smiling supportively through it.    
  
“No. No,” Link said, shaking his head. He sighed, looking at her for a good, long moment before speaking again. “I need to tell you something.”

 

“Of course, Link,” she said easily, like they’d been the best of friends for a year or so.   
  
Link looked at her for a moment, as if to gauge if she was ready, but really only to get himself ready. “Rhett and I… we’re not… we’re faking it.”   
  
“Faking... what?” she asked, scooting up closer to him on the bed.    
  
“Being gay, like… I mean. Being together. In love. We’re not actually together,” he rambled. “We’re just doing it ‘cause we want that amazing room, there’s no way that we would ever…” he trailed off, furrowing his brow as he tried to sort his thoughts out, hoping he managed to tell her the truth as best he could.   
  


Link’s brow would remain furrowed in confusion for the next fifteen-ish minutes, because all Jill would do in response to Link’s words was laugh.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am trying,


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for your lovely support! your comments make my life. 
> 
> this was not beta-ed yet so any mistakes are purely my own as always, hope you forgive those :~)

It hurt Rhett to admit that when Link returned to their apartment looking absolutely disheartened, it made him happy. Even if it was only for a moment — if Link looking dispirited because of Jill made Rhett happy, Link looking dispirited in general didn’t. Immediately, Rhett was on his feet, walking toward Link in concern.   
  
“What happened?” Rhett asked after pausing at what he deemed an appropriate distance.    
  
Closing his saddened eyes, Link leaned against the closed door and sighed.   
  
“I panicked,” Link said frustratedly when he opened his eyes again, looking around the room confusedly, speaking almost as if he was speaking to himself.

 

“You panicked?” Rhett asked, bending down and to the right to try and catch Link’s eyes. When Link’s eyes flicked to him, Rhett suddenly felt embarrassed because of the way he was standing and straightened up.   
  
Link nodded slowly, averting his eyes from Rhett to look at the floor. That’s when Rhett noticed that Link was also breathing a tad heavily, like he’d just ran up here.   
  
“I didn’t know what to say, I —”    
  
“Link,” Rhett said slowly but firmly, damning the ‘appropriate’ distance and crossing the room to stand in front of Link. He put his hands up on Link’s arms, holding him steady. “What happened?”   
  
“There’s no way I can’t fix it,” Link muttered, sounding deathly resigned, worrying Rhett all the more. 

 

Rhett valued and tried to understand every last one of Link’s feelings, but part of him couldn’t help but bitterly think of how anything that Jill had done wasn’t worth Link getting this upset over.   
  
“What now?” Link muttered under his breath, again like he was talking to himself, looking around like he was completely lost in the room. Finally, looking up Rhett’s arm to his neck, and then his face, he found a place for his gaze to settle. Link looked up at Rhett until Rhett loosened his hold on him. Awkwardly, Rhett put his hands down to his sides, and observed Link as he stood there for a moment before shuffling over to the bed. Rhett turned around, following Link with his eyes.    
  
Once he was seated, Link finally spoke intelligibly.    
  
“I told Jill that our relationship isn’t real,” Link said.    
  
“Relationship?” Rhett hadn’t even gotten the punchline out, and his voice was already faltering. “You just met her!” Rhett finished lamely, trying to smile when Link looked up at him with a deathly glare.    
“Sorry, sorry,” Rhett said, and a corner of Link’s lips lifted up a little, in a tiny smile. Rhett moved towards the bed and sat down next to Link. “So you told her, big whoop. Nothing to freak out over.”   
  
Link shook his head, “It’s not that — wait — what do you mean?” Link turned to him, looking aghast. “Nothing to freak out over? You don’t even know what happened! She could have believed it and called the dean and, y’know what, man, I know you take nothing seriously but—”   
  
“No, I didn’t mean — No. I’m sorry,” Rhett said quickly and reached up to catch the hand Link was wildly gesturing with in his own. Link’s eyes shot down to the hand, like he’d only noticed it once Rhett took hold of it. “Sorry,” Rhett said, keeping Link’s smaller hand in his own. He brought both of their hands down onto the bed gently, and patted Link’s hand once more before moving away. “Go on. I’m sorry.”   
  
Link shook his head a little but seemed to allow it. He held Rhett’s gaze as he spoke. “She doesn’t believe a word of it. She’s convinced we’re in love.”   
  
Rhett almost blurted out that, well, she was at least fifty percent right. Just the thought of that ‘at least’ made Rhett’s heart skip a beat — this often happened when he imagined anything involving Link reciprocating his feelings, which,  _ gay. _

 

“So you told her it’s true…?”    
  
“No!” Link exclaimed, and there Rhett’s heart went, skipping another beat.   
  
“No…?” Rhett asked quietly, eyes widening.    
  
“She was all like ‘oh Link that’s so funny’, and I just kinda laughed along and didn’t say anything?” Link said, and Rhett almost laughed. Link could apparently tell by his face.   
  
“Shut it,” Link warned him, and that’s when Rhett had to laugh. “Yeah,” Link said, smiling a little himself, “Laugh it out, Mclaughlin.”    
  
Rhett laughed a little more, putting one hand up to tell Link to hold on a little. When he was done, Rhett easily said, “Big. Whoop.” Because how was this such a big deal? Why was Link so hung up on her?   
  
Link groaned, throwing himself back on the bed. “I should have just told her I was joking when I said I wasn’t in love with you.”   
  
Rhett’s heart got lodged in his throat. Multiple incarnations of a single thought swarmed his mind.  _ Were you? Were you? Were you? Were you? Were you? Were y— _ _  
_ _  
_ “But that would completely ruin my chances with her,” Link said to the ceiling, and then let his head fall to the side so that he could look at Rhett. “I need her,” Link said quietly, absently, looking at Rhett. The statement felt a little out of place, like someone looking at a traffic sign and going “I love peach casserole,” or something. Still, even with how weirdly Link had said it, Rhett couldn’t argue against it. Link knew what he felt.   
  
“You want me to tell her that it’s true?” Rhett asked, voice weak. He cleared his throat before speaking again, “What you said?”   
  
Link raised himself back into a sitting position. “That might actually work…” he said slowly, eyes focused on a point in the distance before they flicked up to meet Rhett’s. “You’d do that?”   
  
Anything. “Yeah.”   
  
Link looked at him for a good while. “Okay, yeah. But… you really wouldn’t have…  _ any… _ problem with it...?”   
  
Rhett shrugged one shoulder and pulled his lips up into a tight line. “If it’s what you want.”   
  
Link shook his head. “No, yeah. Thank you.”   
  
Rhett nodded, unable to find it in himself to smile. Link wasn’t smiling either, all he did was sigh audibly.    
  
“See, that will fix it. Gosh. Whew,” Link said, looking ahead of himself into nothing in particular. “Shoulda known you’d be able to fix it.”

  
“I can’t do it until the day after tomorrow, though,” Rhett said, and Link nodded vigorously.   
  
“Yeah, you got that Physics thing, right?”   
  
Rhett smiled fondly. Link probably knew his schedule better than he knew it himself. “Yeah, tomorrow.”   
  
“Oh, crap,” Link said, “Speaking of. I just remember I’d told Jill we could meet tomorrow too.”   
  
Rhett shook his head disapprovingly, which Link probably took as him joking around.    
  
Link went on, sounding disapproving of himself: “Crap. Another friendly meet-up. Honestly, I don’t know why I thought today would be anything more than friendly. She honest-to-God asked if you would be joining us, after you left, at lunch,” Link said.     
  
The giggle that Rhett let out then was downright embarrassing, but he couldn’t care less. _ “No.” _   
  
“Honest to God!” Link confirmed, eyes crazy wide, which only made Rhett laugh harder. Link shook his head and laughed a little too. “I thought it was a little weird, but I didn’t think much of it.”   
  
_ “Dude,” _ Rhett said, and Link nodded grudgingly.    
  
“I know, I know,” Link said, and then his face suddenly lit up. “Oh! You know who Jill’s rooming with?”   
  
“Who?” Rhett asked.   
  
“Jess!” Link whisper-shouted, and Rhett must have picked up on some of that theatricality, because he gasped in response. After the gasp, he just, kind of, sat there as it settled in, and found that it wasn’t that surprising, actually.   
“I’d never have thought,” Link said, shaking his head in disbelief.   
  
Rhett grimaced. “Really?”   
  
Link grimaced as well. “What?”   
  
Rhett regarded Link slowly. “Jess is  _ totally _ the crazy roommate Jill keeps talking about. Honestly, I don’t see how it could be anyone else.”   
  
Link narrowed his eyes. “Jill never really talks about her roommate.”   
  
Rhett took a moment to gauge if Link was joking. When it was clear that he wasn’t, Rhett chuckled. “Bo. She’s all Jill talks about.”   
  
Link shook his head, and then turned it into a short nod, “I mean. Yeah, she talked about her, but, not that much.”   
  
“Sure,” Rhett said, unable to stop smiling. Where was Link’s mind? Now and at all other times? Rhett thought that Link would have hung onto every one of Jill’s words, but that didn’t seem to be the case.   
  
Link reached behind himself to grab the corner of Rhett’s pillow. Rhett had barely put his arms up in defense when he felt the fluffy pillow come in contact with them.   
  
“I’m going to bed,” Link announced upon hitting Rhett, and got up off the bed. Rhett took the pillow into his arms, laughing. He watched Link moving around the room aimlessly before going into the bathroom.   
  
Even with Link’s feigned anger, going to bed wasn’t something they had to suffer through. It was exactly the opposite; though it was mostly silent, it was short and pleasant, with small, secret smiles galore.    
  
When Link wished Rhett a good night back, it was with a shit-eating grin, and looking at him, Rhett felt like he could never recover from this. Rhett was definitely, wholeheartedly, painfully in love. 

  
Watching Link fall asleep should have been about as interesting as watching paint dry, but it wasn’t. Even if Link took forever to fall asleep and Rhett could barely see him in the moonlight, this was way better than drying paint. There was no shade that could make Rhett feel like this, that could colour his days in this mix of confusion, heartache, frustration and overwhelming handsomeness like Link did. There was no shade he was in love with. 

 

Though blue did come pretty close.   
  
Or he was just thinking about Link’s eyes.    
  
—   
  
Rhett woke up from a nice, quiet night to a dismal morning. When he opened his eyes, he was expecting to see Link there, but his side of the bed was empty. Rhett rolled over onto his back to sigh. Link was already gone.    
Rhett remembered with bitterness that usually, on Wednesdays, they would completely miss each other — with Link’s classes being in the morning, and Rhett’s in the afternoon. 

  
Rhett sat up, thinking of what he could busy himself with. He was supposed to be busy with studying for his Physics examination, but  _ as if _ he would spend the morning studying.

And Rhett knew that Link would have reprimanded him for even thinking this, but this time it was completely true: Rhett knew what he knew. He’d gone through the materials a few days ago. To go through everything again would be completely futile.   
  
Even if he wasn’t busy, he’d made himself appear very busy so as to have an excuse not to go and talk to Miss Perfect.  _ Jill. _ Dang, Rhett would really have to get used to calling her by her real name. With how much she was in his day-to-day life now, he’d better make sure not to let ‘Miss Perfect’ slip in front of Jill herself.    
  
Rhett narrowed his ideas for the morning to two: he could stay in the room and sulk, or he could stay in the room and call Gregg over to hang. Under the pretense of playing video games, Rhett could have someone to talk to. And even if Rhett didn’t consider Gregg to be the master of all things romantic, Gregg knew the situation they were in and Rhett knew he could confide in him. Even if Gregg, much like Miss —  _ Jill, _ still didn’t believe that Rhett and Link weren’t actually together.    
  
By the time Gregg showed up, Rhett had already been getting dangerous ideas of tidying the place up. 

 

Something that was completely unnecessary, and when he heard the door open, Rhett was startled by the fact that his thoughts had gone in that direction.   
  
Gregg opened the door as far as it would go, took a few steps forward, slowly spreading his arms. Once he was close enough, he wrapped Rhett in a tight, wordless hug.   
  
Rhett stilled in his arms before slowly bringing one hand to pat Gregg on the back.   
  
“...Okay,” Rhett said, just to say something. This was not something he and Gregg usually did.   
  
“Don’t fight it,” Gregg murmured, “I haven’t seen you in seven years.” He patted Rhett on the back, squeezing tightly.    
  
“I guess I missed you too,” Rhett said reluctantly, laughing a little. Gregg didn’t respond — his mind seemed to have been elsewhere. With his eyes fixed on something behind Rhett, Gregg seemed to try to head over to the television set before he even let go of Rhett.   
  
“How’ve ya been, man?” Gregg asked casually once they fully separated and Rhett, still reeling from the hug, nodded his head slowly.   
  
“Uh...Pretty good. Yourself?” Rhett couldn’t stop marvelling at how easily Gregg spoke while doing something completely unrelated, in this case perusing Rhett and Link’s video game collection.   
  
“Real good, yeah. Didn’t get new roommates, though Mark is there like all the time so I don’t even notice that you guys are gone.”   
  
Rhett grinned and sat on the bed. “Mhm,” he hummed, observing Gregg. “Which is why you hugged me…”   
  
Gregg shook his head, laughing. “That was for a completely different reason, Rhett.”   
  
Rhett snickered, nodding his head. “Aha, aha. I see.”   
  
“And where’s my favourite baby boy?” Gregg then asked, instantly confusing Rhett.   
  
Rhett didn’t even have to ask “who?” — when Gregg turned back to look at him, he could seemingly read the confusion on Rhett’s face, and immediately spoke.   
  
“Link,” Gregg explained through a laugh. “Am I not allowed to call him that, if you do?”   
  
Rhett scrunched his face up in a frown. “I don’t call him that,” he muttered defensively, trailing off.   
  
“Right, right,” Gregg said and nodded, though he didn’t sound as if he believed Rhett. “It’s something else, then, like honey or sweetie or  _ love.” _   
  
“Shut it,” Rhett muttered, because  _ fuck,  _ Gregg was spot on.    
  
Gregg smiled. “I’m so happy for you, Mclaughlin.”   
  
_ “Gregg—” _   
  
“No, listen,” Gregg said, finally settling on plucking  _ Street Fighter Alpha 2 _ out of their assortment of games. He held it in his hands and turned to Rhett, leaning against the dresser. “There’s guys who talk about it like it’s… Man. I don’t need to tell you, I’m sure you know. And I’m not saying I’m good by comparison, or anything. I’m sure I can’t understand how it is for y’all. But… they don’t know you and Link. They should be nice either way, but like… You and Link were meant for each other, man. Who gives a shit if you’re both dudes?”   
  
Rhett stared at Gregg, a small lump in his throat. “Crap.”   
  
“What?” Gregg asked, taking his turn as the confused one.   
  
“I needa tell you something, and I need you to trust me, like, real bad,” Rhett said, trying his best to keep direct and piercing eye contact.    
  
Gregg nodded and shuffled over to sit on the bed. Rhett knew that Gregg thought this was serious if he didn’t even take the time to fire up the PlayStation.   
  
“Everything okay?” Gregg asked, and Rhett did a weird thing where he nodded and shook his head at the same time.   
  
“It’s just…” Rhett tried to begin, squeezing his hands into fists. “Remember when Link and I told you that we weren’t really together?”   
  
Gregg gave him a short nod. “Yeah, which, I get it, but you guys didn’t have to worry about me knowing—”   
  
“But you  _ don’t,” _ Rhett cut him off, sounding way more harsh than he’d intended to.    
  
Gregg was looking at him with an expression too patient and kind. Rhett thought of apologising for his outburst, but figured he’d do better with just telling Gregg the rest of the truth.    
“Heck, even I don’t know. Sometimes Link will do these things…”    
  
“Wait, wait,” Gregg said, holding one hand up, “What do you m—?”   
  
“I love Link,” Rhett said, sudden and rushed and breathless. He was looking ahead into nothing in particular, but could still feel Gregg’s eyes on him, and could sense that Gregg had a shit-eating grin on his face.   
  
“What else is new, buddy?”   
  
“Gregg—” Rhett turned to face him, exasperation turning into sadness.    
  
Gregg’s grin fell away. “Wait… Rhett… dude...”   
  
Rhett tried to swallow around the lump in his throat. “Link’s in love with someone else. And not in like, a bad way — I mean, it’s not like he’s cheating. ‘Cause he couldn’t cheat on me if he wanted to, and not only ‘cause he’s a good guy. The thing we told you, it was true.”   
  
Gregg kept quiet, looking at Rhett with wide eyes.   
  
“We’re pretending to be together so that we can live here. It started out as a friendly thing but now I just… Took me a long time to realise it, but I’m in love with him. He’s got this girl, though…”   
  
Gregg looked like he was completely lost upon hearing this. “You’re serious.”   
  
Rhett nodded his head.   
  
Gregg forced a short laugh, “I’m waiting for the  _ sike,  _ Rhett,” he said, trying for lightness. “...Rhett?” he asked carefully.    
  
Rhett shook his head, set on not letting his eyes water. He was steadily failing at that, and he would try his best to at least not let them overflow.    
  
“But I thought…” Gregg began, looking ahead of himself at the TV, which they had yet to turn on.    
  
Rhett shook his head and clicked his tongue, the most he could do, he felt, without crying. This was more than embarrassing, and something he would have to make dang sure that Gregg never brought up again, or God forbid shared with anyone. 

 

Rhett took a shaky breath and tried to compose himself before speaking. “The thing you just said, about us being meant for each other… I feel it, man. But I know that he doesn’t, and I don’t know what to do.”   
  
“Holy fuck,” Gregg whispered. “But you guys… I could  _ swear _ Link was…”   
  
“Don’t,” Rhett began, shaking his head, “Don’t do that. It bothers him when people find feminine things about him and make him out to be gay—”   
  
“I don’t give a crap if he’s gay or not,” Gregg said sternly, “Okay, yeah, maybe that has something to do with it, but — what I meant was, and wait till I say it before you jump to your lover’s defense, he’s over the freakin’ moon for you. I know you can’t jump outta your body and see how he looks at you when you ain’t looking, but, like, try it sometime.”   
Gregg’s words put a small smile on Rhett’s face, but it didn’t stay there for long.    
  
Rhett shook his head, “Even if it looks like that, it doesn’t mean anything. We’ve been best friends for so long—”   
  
“Don’t care,” Gregg said, “That ain’t the way best friends look at each other.”   
  
“Thirteen years, man,” Rhett said. “Trust me, I’ve turned this over a million times, he’s just not… And I don’t even know what I am.”   
  
“Rent some gay porn and figure it out,” Gregg snapped at him, and it startled a laugh out of Rhett.    
  
“Alright,” Rhett said, smiling, “Dang. You sound like you really care about this. Even if your advice is awful.”   
  
“Not confirming or denying anything, but,” Gregg began, standing up from the bed. “What are you gonna do?”   
  
Rhett shook his head, “There’s nothing to do, man.” He sighed, thinking it over. “I feel like I need some time to figure it out. And I just can’t get my mind to work. When I think I’ve thought of something, like, maybe I won’t laugh at his jokes and get him thinkin’, or something, he shows up, one word in and I’m giggling like a freakin’ schoolgirl.” It was mortifying to admit, but also very freeing to say out loud.    
  
“Hm,” Gregg murmured, nodding his head slowly. When his face lit up, Rhett swore that for a split-second, he could see an actual light-bulb appear above Gregg’s head. “I know!”   
  
Rhett would be lying if he said that the words didn’t excite him. “What?”   
  
Gregg paced back and forth, hands halfway up as he gesticulated, punctuating every word with a wave of his hands, “You could come with me to Alaska!”   
  
Rhett looked up at him, his mouth parting stupidly against his will. “Uhhh…”   
  
Gregg shook his head at him. “Dude. It’s not like I just pulled this outta my ass. Some of the guys were arranging to go before Spring Break while the snow is still not melted, or something. Snowboarding! Hiking! Might sound a bit extreme to go, but it oughta take your mind off Link.”   
  
Rhett still stared at Gregg, though he found it in himself to close his mouth. “I don’t know…” he said reluctantly.   
  
“Don’t know what?” Gregg asked, still visibly enthused by the idea of Rhett coming along for the trip.   
  
“I’d feel weird going without Link.”   
  
“Psh,” Gregg said, “We’ll ask him to come too.”   
  
Rhett gave him a moment.   
  
“Wait—” Gregg bared his teeth in an apologetic grimace.   
  
“Yeah,” Rhett said, shaking his head.   
  
“Link’s got a Sociology exam that week, though. And you know how much he cares about that stuff. So he probably wouldn’t wanna go…”   
  
“How do you even know about that?”    
  
Gregg stepped back, as if offended. “I’m in that class.”   
  
“Doesn’t that mean —” Rhett began, but then it dawned on him. “Oh,” he said matter-o-factly, “You don’t care.”   
  
“Nope,” Gregg confirmed, “Can always retake it.”   
  
Rhett nodded, still mulling the offer over. In what seemed like less than a second, Gregg pressed a controller into his hands, and Rhett thought that deciding on whether to take Gregg’s offer could wait.   
  
“Alaska, man,” Gregg said as they waited for the screen to load, “Alaska!”

 

—   
  
Rhett’s Physics exam went okay. ‘Okay’ was as good as Rhett thought he could call it. He didn’t want to think about it. What he wanted after a long day was just to get back to their room and lie on the floor, his feet up on the bed. Link could be up on the bed next to Rhett’s feet, looking down at him with that fondly annoyed face as they talked.    
Well. It didn’t have to be specifically that. They could talk in any way.    
  
Rhett was just looking forward to seeing Link. Gregg had left about half a minute before Rhett realised he needed to be in class soon, rushing out of the apartment with Rhett and wishing him luck before they separated. Then, it was two hours sitting in an uncomfortable chair and recounting all the Physics coursework he’d learnt so far in the semester. But what was even worse than that was the fact that when Rhett came home, it was to an empty apartment.    
And what dampened his mood even further was the realisation that there was only one place Link could be.    
  
—   
  
Rhett didn’t know how he found himself here. For all of Gregg’s incompetence as a sage advisor, the guy had some pretty non-bad ideas. Just the mention of this one had caused a spike in Rhett’s heartbeat, damned if he ever let it show. 

 

Even if he could hide it from Gregg, he couldn’t hide it from himself — and now that he was here…   
  
The excitement was almost too much to bear.

 

With the tape whirring in the VCR, Rhett stripped down to his underwear and sat himself down on his side of the bed.    
  
Renting the tape hadn’t been nearly as agonizing as Rhett thought it would be. He’d settled for something vanilla, which helped, but he was still expecting the guy behind the till to raise a questioning, approving or disapproving brow. He didn’t react in any way, just told him to have it back by Monday. Rhett could take that.   
  
He fluffed his pillow up and lay back, trying to relax as he watched the two actors interact on screen. One was apparently a handyman of some sort, and the other the owner of the house they were in. The owner of the house was slightly shorter, dressed in a tank top and shorts, with great legs and hair that reminded Rhett of Link’s. He invited the other guy into his bedroom under some flimsy excuse, and off they went.   
  
Rhett could call it flimsy all he wanted, but he had to admit that the idea excited him. Once in the bedroom, both the characters knew which way this would go down, apparently. There was a lot of flirty looks and bending down and speaking in a hushed voice from the leggy character, and then he stepped forward and almost pressed himself against the bigger man’s chest as he spoke to him.   
  
When speaking turned to kissing, Rhett’s hand dipped down into the incline of his thigh.    
  
When the handyman pushed the other guy down onto the bed, Rhett put his hand down on top of his stiffening cock, rubbing against it slightly. He watched with interest as the actors on screen kissed and nipped each other’s lips. They peeled each other’s shirts off and kissed some more before the bigger guy dipped his head downwards, kissing down the other’s chest until he made it to his shorts. When he pulled those shorts down and the other guy’s hard cock sprung free, Rhett let out a soft moan.    
He raised his own hips up and pulled his boxers down, freeing his own hardened cock. He wrapped a hand around it, slowly working it up and down as he observed what was happening on screen — one of the guys took the other’s cock in his mouth, making both Rhett and him moan.    
  
This was hot, Rhett decided, moving his hand up and down in time with the actor’s mouth. He thought of Link doing that to him, or, God, him doing that to Link, and threw his head back, closing his eyes for a moment. To the soundtrack of loud moaning, Rhett thought about Link. The fact that the date Link was on was a friendly one put Rhett in a much better mood than he’d been the previous day. Yes, Jill took Link away from him, but Rhett had to admit that he couldn’t be as jealous as he used to be, which made the happy thoughts come easier. Thoughts like Link kissing him goodnight, and Rhett returning that kiss, deepening it. Link climbing on top of him, moving his hips slowly and deliberately over Rhett’s own. Rhett arching up to him and Link impatient to hold him there as they moved in tandem.   
  
One of the guys on screen cursed loudly and Rhett opened his eyes, his gaze flicking back down. Rhett had barely returned his gaze to the screen when the door opened.    
  
“Shit,” Rhett muttered, seeing Link at the threshold with one of his hands up on the doorknob.    
  
Rhett scrambled for the remote, trying to turn the TV off while he tucked himself into his boxers with his other hand. When he looked back up, the door was closed, with Link nowhere in sight.   
  
This was not happening, was the first thing that ran through Rhett’s mind. As the crushing realisation that it  _ was _ happening settled in, Rhett found himself looking around the room in despair. How would he ever hear the end of this? Especially if Link had seen what was on the screen? Link could be out there planning how to move out or just plain running away – which, don’t that Link would, but he  _ could _ —   
  
All thought left Rhett’s brain when the door opened again. This time more slowly, and Link peeked in once it was open enough. He still kept it mostly shut, holding it there as if to keep a barrier between them.   
  
“Rhett?” Link whispered, and Rhett shifted on the bed, sitting up straighter and pulling one leg up to his chest, the other half-bent and pressed inwards slightly, concealing the situation in his boxers.   
  
Rhett didn’t respond, but hoped he non-verbally let Link know that he was listening.   
  
Link seemed to have picked up on it, and looked as if he was about to step into the room, but then decided to remain in place. He gulped. “You, uh… want me to go away?”   
  
Rhett stared at him for a bit before shaking his head with a sigh. “You’ve already seen way more than you signed up for,” he said, looking away in embarrassment. Fuck. Was this the worst day of his life, or what?   
  
Link opened the door tentatively, but still not all the way. Still like he was trying to protect anything out there from anything that was in here, or vice versa.   
Still just enough so that he could slip inside the room and close the door behind himself. “I think I signed up for way more,” Link said softly. His hand had remained on the doorknob, and now dipped downwards a little, so it could turn the key in the lock.   
  
Rhett’s heart jammed in his throat, yet he could feel it in every pulse point, his body shaking with it. “What?”   
  
“Just saying, we’re supposed to be boyfriends. If I just…” Link began, but seemed to have lost his train of thought. He took a step toward the bed, and Rhett put his legs down on the bed, baring himself a little. His hands were still folded over his crotch, and he didn’t miss the way Link’s eyes flicked to it. His body didn’t miss it either; a heat rose from his chest and up his neck all the way to the tips of his cheekbones, buzzing softly and making him tingle. Rhett looked up at Link sheepishly, decided on the fact that whatever Link wanted to do to him, Rhett would allow it.   
  
Link looked away immediately, cheeks colouring a little. “Remember in, like, sophomore year of high school, when Don Warren said he’d found a porno tape, and invited a bunch of guys over to watch it?”   
  
It was instantly clear to Rhett, where Link was going with this. Link didn’t want to do anything  _ to _ him, he just wanted to do something  _ with _ him. Which was more than good enough, in Rhett’s opinion.    
  
For now.   
  


Link looked over at Rhett, but quickly looked away again. “We never went, ‘cause we always thought that jerkin’ off in front of someone else was weird,” Link reminded him. Rhett remembered it, and the fact that only Link thought that it was weird, and therefore didn’t want to go. Rhett didn’t want to go simply because Link didn’t want to go.    
Which, fuck. Clue number 456.    
  
Additionally, it was very clear to Rhett that Link hadn’t caught a glimpse of what was on the TV, if he wanted to do this. So Rhett was still set up for the biggest let-down, if not argument, of his life.   
  
Link cleared his throat and looked up at Rhett, holding his gaze this time. “So. You can take care of yourself. I won’t look. I’d just be there…” Link said, flicking his gaze to his side of the bed.    
  
Rhett gulped. “I don’t know, man,” he said, well aware of how things would play out once Link put the TV on. But even regardless of that; “Wouldn’t it be…” Rhett sought for a word, and settled on the one most true to form, “confusing?”   
  
Link shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t think so. We’re supposed to be boyfriends, and we can’t even jack off next to each other-”   
  
Rhett shook his head, suddenly feeling annoyed. “Boyfriends don’t jack off next to each other, bo. They jack each other off.”   
  
Link pulled his bottom lip in with his teeth, worrying it. “Yeah, but we aren’t… I mean… God,” his voice lowered to a whisper: “Confusing.”   
  
Rhett didn’t know whether to sigh in relief or disappointment. “I know,” Rhett says, “Look, I’m sorry. Let’s just go to sleep. Everything’s so messy and—”   
  
Link shrugged his shoulders, a light expression taking over his face. “Don’t have to be,” he said casually.   
  
“What?”   
  
Link brought one hand up to scratch his face. “I mean… It doesn’t have to be that serious. Could just try and see how we feel.”   
  
“And if you don’t like it…”   
  
Link smirked. “What if  _ you  _ don’t like it?”   
  
Rhett knew that he would. “Fine,” Rhett said, “What if we don’t like it?”   
  
“We will,” Link said simply, making Rhett roll his eyes.    
  
“Link…” Rhett said impatiently. Link stretched across the bed to reach the remote, brushing against Rhett’s thigh, delaying his thoughts and his reaction to the fact that Link had just taken the freaking remote, and oh, oh  _ no. _ _  
  
_

“Dude,” Link said, flicking the TV on, but still looking at Rhett, “It’s just porn.”   
  
Rhett wanted the earth to swallow him whole. Which, coincidentally, was what one of the actors on screen was doing to the other.    
  
Over the loud sound of moans, grunts and groans, Link turned his head to look at the TV. Rhett’s stomach sank.   
  
“That’s… a guy.” Link stated.   
  
Rhett cleared his throat. “One with the dick in his mouth?” he muttered, thinking that he might as well just bury himself deeper. Which was what the guy on screen—   
  
Link shook his head, then nodded. “Why are you...?” Link trailed off, turning his head to look back at Rhett.    
  
The question wasn’t asked in an accusatory tone, but still made Rhett cower in embarrassment. But Rhett understood — Link just found out that his, supposedly straight, best friend watched a not-so-straight porno. No wonder he had questions.    
  
“It’s not a big deal,” Rhett said, trying to convince both Link and himself. He searched his mind for something straight to say. “A hole is a hole.”   
  
Link rolled his eyes, looking completely unamused. Which made Rhett completely regret saying it, but was it not what guys said, like, all the time?    
  
“And you’re an a-hole,” Link teased, standing up from the bed. He walked around it slowly, shaking his head a little. Link took a moment to press pause, which resulted in their big TV being lit up with an image of a guy having his hair pulled while a dick was pressed against his tongue.    
  
“Whoa, alright,” Rhett began, eyes narrowed, “Like it ain’t true.”   
  
“Whatever, man,” Link said, smirking as he took his shoes off, and Rhett glared at him. When Link sat himself down onto the bed slowly with his back turned to Rhett, Rhett’s gaze softened. Yes, he hated doing this; but he was a man, and these were the ways in which men thought and talked and acted. Rhett wanted to fix this, but didn’t know how to do so without looking like a wimp. And there was no way he was apologising.    
  
“How was your date?” Rhett asked, and Link raised an annoyed brow.   
  
“Rhett… I don’t think that’s what you want to talk about,” Link said, with a nod to the TV.   
  


Rhett sighed, shaking his head. “I was curious, alright?” Rhett said quietly, and Link turned halfway around to look at him. “Can you blame me?”   
  
Link shook his head. Before Rhett could register it, Link was pulling his shirt off over his head.   
  
Rhett gulped. “What are you doing?” he asked, stupidly.   
  
“Guess I’m curious too,” Link said, and went to work on unbuttoning his jeans. 

 

“You serious?” Rhett asked, feeling himself getting excited when Link stood up, facing Rhett as he pulled his pants down. Before Link pulled the covers up to climb into bed, Rhett caught a glimpse of a significant bulge in the front of his boxers.   
  
“Yeah,” Link was saying, “I haven’t jacked off in so freakin’ long.”   
  
Rhett observed him out the corner of his eye as he settled down, gnawing on his lip. “I know what this is,” Rhett said, turning his head to the side to look at Link.   
  
“You...do?” Link asked slowly, playing with the corner of the duvet.    
  
Rhett chuckled. Either Link had been extremely good at hiding it, or he hadn’t jerked off at all since they moved in together. Well, moved in together just the two of them. Rhett had always been aware of when Link snuck away to jerk off back when they lived with Gregg. “It’s kinda clear since you sound like you’ve got the biggest case of blue balls.”   
  
Link shook his head and huffed out a laugh. “And only one person to blame.”   
  
Rhett shook his head too, albeit more disapprovingly, now getting properly annoyed. “You should just stop seein’ her if you don’t think anything will come out of it, brother.”   
  
“What?” Link asked, frozen in place. “Oh. Yeah, I mean. Yeah. I can’t  _ not  _ try, Rhett, she’s…”   
  
Rhett didn’t need to hear it. “So we doing this or nah?”    
  
“Yeah! Yes.” Link rushed to confirm. Rhett faced the TV, and felt Link fidget beside him. Every dip in the mattress just served to remind Rhett of how close Link was, and what they were about to do.    
  
Link’s soft voice washed over Rhett in waves, making him shiver. “You okay,  _ babe?”  _ Link teased. The fact that Link was teasing didn’t register with Rhett’s heart, which sped up to about three hundred beats per minute. Pre-heart-attack — that sounds about right. 

“Fine,” Rhett grumbled, trying to relax, sinking under the covers.   
  
Link chuckled and pressed play.    
  
The mood shifted slowly, but shifted nonetheless. Rhett tried his best to relax, and it kind of worked. In a sense that there was no embarrassment or shyness — he would do this, in front of Link, and he’d enjoy it. He was still on edge because Link was there, and oh God, Link.   
First, Rhett tried to focus on the screen, and in his periphery he could see Link doing the same. Then, the covers undulated, and Rhett chanced a quick look over at Link, and saw him, legs open, with one hand under the covers. Instead of on the man receiving a blowjob on screen, Rhett focused on the way in which the covers on top of him would tighten just a bit when Link moved, pulling them.   
  
Not a moment later, Rhett’s gaze wandered over the surface of the pale covers and over to Link again, and he could clearly see Link’s hand move in a way that suggested he was stroking himself under the covers. Rhett turned his gaze away as quickly as if he’d been burned. This was not what he was supposed to be looking at.    
  
Rhett brought his own hand down to his throbbing cock, pacifying it a little by rubbing himself through his boxers. His index finger slid over the head of his cock, where there was a small damp patch on the fabric.    
  
Of course. Of course Link made him like this.    
  
When the guy on screen took one of his partner’s balls into his mouth while steadily stroking his cock with his hand, Rhett dipped his fingers under his waistband and wrapped his fingers around his own cock. More than anything, over the sounds of pleasure coming from the screen, his ears picked up on Link’s breathing, how it came more quickly, how ragged it sounded.    
  
Rhett squeezed his hand around his cock and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to force Link out of his mind. Which, he soon found, was not possible.    
  
When Rhett opened his eyes and shifted them sideways, not to look at Link but just in that general direction, the covers on top of Link moved steadily up and down, and Rhett knew what the motion meant. The feeling the sight gave him was visceral, sending butterflies flying to and fro in his belly.    
  
Link shifted, sinking down a little as he relaxed, stroking himself more quickly. Upon noticing this, Rhett had to bite down hard on his lip and still his hand around his cock so as not to come instantly.   
  
The guy on screen licked down his partner’s length and then continued downwards, over his perineum and even further down.    
  
Next to him, Rhett could hear Link gasp sweetly.   
  
“Rhett?” Link called, and  _ fuck, _ the feelings this awoke in Rhett were almost painful.   
  
“Link?” Rhett asked, knowing full well how desperate he sounded.   
  
“What’s he doing?” Link asked, voice husky, and Rhett  _ had _ to look over at him. Link’s eyes were lidded, focused on the screen, eyelashes fluttering. His reddened chest heaved with excited breaths, and his hand worked quickly under the covers to bring him off.    
  
Imagining what was under the covers, Rhett didn’t allow himself to breathe, lest he moaned.    
  
“Fuck,” Rhett breathed, squeezing his eyes shut and turning his gaze away from Link. Taking a deep, shaky breath, Rhett spoke: “He’s eating him out.”   
  
“Oh,” Link whispered, voice strained. When the guy on screen brought a finger along and pressed it to his co-star’s hole, Link produced another, softer, “Oh.”   
  
Link shifted, opening his legs further, and Rhett made peace with the fact that he would come embarrassingly fast. On screen, there was some fingering going on, but once Rhett looked at Link, he couldn’t tear his gaze away from Link no matter what happened in the film. Link’s cheeks were flushed prettily, and he tensed up a little, his hand working quickly as he brought himself off.   
  
When he thought Link might notice, Rhett quickly looked back at the screen.   
  
_ “Turn around, baby,” _ the guy on screen instructed, and his partner easily flipped onto his front, sticking his ass up in the air. The other guy’s mouth was back where it had been in a second, and the guy underneath pressed his head into the mattress, moaning loudly. Rhett could easily imagine Link on the bed like that, how he would writhe and moan under Rhett’s mouth.   
  
He could imagine the scene even better when Link moaned beside him. Despite himself, Rhett snapped his head towards him, and caught Link looking away from Rhett himself. Had Link been looking at him?    
  
Surely not. One glance, most probably accidental, didn’t mean anything. Link was not like him, and didn’t look at Rhett the same way Rhett looked at him.   
  
Rhett felt the bed move as Link moved, and then one of Link’s legs was pressing against his own. Rhett’s breath hitched and he looked over at Link, who was looking straight ahead of himself, never ceasing in touching himself. Rhett noticed that both of Link’s hands were now under the covers, and thinking of where that other hand was made Rhett’s head spin. Link’s other leg was bent at the knee as if to give him better access to do something Rhett wasn’t ready to think about Link doing.   
  
Rhett looked up at the ceiling, away from both Link and the screen, and tried to get his breathing under control. 

 

When he looked back at the screen, the guy on top had pushed his pants down just enough to take his cock out, and was now slicking it up with his spit before he pressed it against the other’s hole.    
  
“Fuck,” Link breathed, and Rhett’s ears tingled with the sound, his body shaking. Link’s leg was still pressed against his own, and Rhett felt like he could feel every movement of Link’s body through that single point of contact.   
  
The moans on screen got louder as the guy pushed in, and Rhett froze, watching it happen with bated breath. Link was still moving, albeit more slowly, quietly, like he was interested himself.    
  
When the guy grabbed the other by the hips to fully press inside him before pulling out again, and then began to fuck him — Rhett moved his hand again, letting himself moan quietly.   
  
Link was moving, too — and Rhett shouldn’t have, but he looked over at him. What he saw then was Link already looking at him. Not his face, mind you, but his crotch, or where it was hidden under the covers. Rhett still moved his hand quickly, the feeling too good to let self-consciousness ruin it. And it wasn’t like Link looked grossed out by what he was seeing.    
  
Link’s hooded eyes travelled up Rhett’s body, making Rhett shiver. All the way up his chest to his lips, where Rhett must have imagined that they lingered, before making it up to his eyes.    
  
Meeting Link’s eyes felt electric. Rhett’s lips parted in a moan, and he couldn’t care less about Link hearing it. Rhett moved his hand all the faster, all the more eagerly, and hadn’t noticed when his side of the covers slipped down, revealing the side of his bare hip.   
  
He only noticed it when Link looked down at it. By the time Rhett had scrambled to pull the covers up, Link was facing the TV, but his eyes were closed. He moved his hand obscenely fast, and then undulated his body to match his strokes. He cried out but quickly stifled it, pulling his body up from under the covers a little. Rhett, feeling very short of breath, sped his own hand up, decided on not taking his eyes away from Link, no matter the consequences.    
  
When Link came, Rhett could tell so by every part of him, from the pleasure on his face to the way his body trembled. Having brought himself to the edge, Link leaned back, still working his hand up and down slowly as he laid back against his pillow. He’d pushed his part of the covers down just slightly, and had accidentally revealed his happy trail.   
  
Rhett imagined leaning down and nuzzling the spot, and found himself tensing up within seconds. He spilled all over his hand and his boxers, quickly bending his knees up to lift the covers and spare them, at least.   
  
Breathing heavily, with his heart pounding in his chest, Rhett leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. He felt the covers move as Link pulled his own legs up. When Rhett caught his breath, Link had already flicked the TV off.   
  
“Assume you don’t wanna watch any more,” Link said breathlessly before chuckling lightly.   
  
Rhett shook his head, a smile pulling at his lips.   
  
“Didn’t think so,” Link breathed, pulling the covers up and keeping his hands under them. When he emerged from under the covers, he was tucked up into his boxers. When Link got out of bed, Rhett could see the damp patch on the front of those boxers, which made his slowly softening cock twitch.   
Link turned around and headed for the dresser, and Rhett’s gaze stayed fixated on Link’s butt as Link got a clean pair of underpants and headed for the bathroom. 

 

When the door to the bathroom shut, Rhett let himself melt into the mattress. He sank down with a sigh, unable to believe what had just happened. The drying spunk in his boxers served as a blissful reminder of it, even if it was uncomfortable.   
  
As he got up to get his own clean pair of underwear, Rhett thought about Link, and the ways Link had allowed Rhett to see him today. As greedy as he was, he couldn’t wait to see what would follow this.    
  
The door to the bathroom opened to reveal Link, now in a pair of black boxers. He didn’t step out of the bathroom completely, but rather leaned against the doorframe, looking at Rhett, as if beckoning him forward. Like a well trained puppy, Rhett walked over, brushing against Link as he entered the bathroom. Link was still at the door, except he turned, leaning his other shoulder against the doorframe so that he could face Rhett.   
  
Rhett stepped closer to Link, and Link raised one hand to poke him in the stomach. The poke was gentle, more like a touch, and it made goosebumps rise on Rhett’s skin.   
  
“That thing you said about a hole being a hole,” Link began, “I got the same thing from a guy in my class, about you.”   
  
Rhett frowned, shaking his head. “Sorry I said it, bo. I’m just so freaking…”   
  
“Frayed? Irritated? Angry?”   
  
“I mean I don’t know if you picked up on it...” Rhett grinned.   
  
Link giggled. “It’s fine. I know things are a little weird—”   
  
“Try extremely,” Rhett sighed.   
  
Link nodded “But it’ll all fall into place.”   
  
Rhett nodded, then bit his lip, unsure if he should speak any more. His mind was fuzzy with Link and he was still blissed-out in that post-coital way, so he feared he might reveal more than he intended to, but spoke nevertheless. “Anyway, I feel better now,” he said softly.    
  
Link smiled, averting his eyes. “Me too.”   
  
Rhett mirrored the smile, and suddenly had the weirdest urge to reach forward and push Link’s hair away from his forehead.    
There was one thing he needed to check on before he did anything. If Link answered negatively to this question, well, Rhett didn’t dare dream of how happy he’d be. “You still want me to talk to Jill?” he asked.   
  
Link pursed his lips a little, frowning like he was thinking it over. “Yeah. I mean, yeah, I guess I still think I could turn it around, especially if you tell her I was telling the truth.”   
  
Rhett hadn’t meant ‘still’ in that way, but nodded nevertheless. It was stupid to think that this shared sexual experience somehow changed Link’s mind.   
  
“Okay,” Rhett said coldly, stepping back. “Should change, so…”   
  
“Oh, right, yeah,” Link said quickly, stepping out of the bathroom and closing the door behind him quickly before Rhett could even raise his hand.    
  
Putting his clean boxers onto the sink and stepping out of his dirty ones, Rhett walked over to the toilet and flipped the toilet seat up. He desperately needed a piss.    
  
As he took care of that, and then went to put his clean underwear on, he found himself thinking. 

 

What dawned on Rhett then more than anything was that he couldn’t initiate anything. He was a coward. If Link just stuck his foot in the right direction, Rhett would spill his guts. But Rhett wasn’t about to point out that he wasn’t asked about what  _ he _ wanted to do in regards to Jill. 

 

Rhett returned to the bedroom to find that the lights were off and Link was in bed, on his side, facing inwards. Rhett lifted the covers up and laid down on his side as well, even if he didn’t prefer it. 

 

There were times, like the kiss, when Rhett was almost certain that Link wanted him romantically, but he kept running back to Jill, and now, well, he’d said his bit.    
  
“Good night,” Link whispered, a small smile on his lips.   
  


“Good night,” Rhett whispered back, eyes roaming over the slope of Link’s neck, the way moonlight fell onto his shoulders, how his eyes gleamed in the half-dark.   
  
Had Link declined Rhett’s offer to tell Jill the truth, Rhett would have covered Link’s body with his own and sought his lips, his cheeks, his fluttering, shell-shaped eyelids to press soft kisses to.   
But now, speaking of offers, there was one Rhett was suddenly sure he’d have to accept, and he’d have to tell Link about it soon. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for your overwhelming support! <3 and yeah i might feel lonely but that feeling is replaced with happiness as soon as i see any bit of feedback from you. and yeah, it’s a pleasure to write 4 y’all :~) thank youuu!!!

 

Link woke up to Rhett’s hand on his waist, one of his arms under Rhett’s head, and their legs intertwined. Waking up tangled with Rhett was the last thing he was expecting. For the covers to have slipped off them in the way they did was even more unexpected, as was the clear view he therefore had of the tent at the front of Rhett’s boxers.    
  
Link unstuck his eyes from that when Rhett’s hand moved a little, as if he were pulling Link closer. Link let himself be pulled in.    
  
Here’s the thing; Rhett was sweaty, his eyes were crusted with sleep, and his breath wasn’t the mintiest. And still Link only wanted closer to him, wanted to press himself against Rhett nearly until he became part of him. Even if their skin would stick with sweat, even if Rhett had schmutz in the corners of his eyes and his breath was downright stinky — Link would hold him tight and kiss him.  

 

Well, in another world he would. This way he’d just have to hold out. This brought about the inevitable thoughts of if anything changed after last night. For Link, personally, nothing had. Maybe if he were more slow in realising his feelings, it would have, but now it was just a small blessing. Something he couldn’t believe happened, and yes, maybe felt slightly guilty for. It felt manipulative, letting himself do such things with Rhett, who still thought Link was just his best friend.   
  
Engaging in such activities without telling Rhett about the depth of his feelings felt kind of like if he were to kiss Rhett now, while Rhett was asleep — while Rhett was unaware, straight and helpless.   
  
But here’s what made Link indignant: With how straight and helpless he was, Rhett was taking all of this in stride too easily. He let Link get away with so much, which was crueler than if he outright told him to stay away.    
Well, it really wasn’t. Maybe Link would have thought of it that way if he was morally upstanding. But Link wasn’t completely morally upstanding. Link was a college student.    
  
In any case: Getting to jack off at the same time, in the same bed, as the only love of your life, was a blessing. Link knew it, and thanked the heavens for it.   
But he knew he’d soon have to let Rhett know about his feelings, and if Rhett accepted them, if Rhett reciprocated —   
  
With how easily Link got distracted with daydreaming about Rhett returning his feelings, he knew he’d need help. It was one of a myriad of reasons he’d decided to consult someone on how to breach the subject with Rhett. Girls were so much better at this stuff; so he needed Jill to tell him what to do and how to do it.    
If there was a chance of him helping his case before he pleaded it to Rhett, like, if he could affect how Rhett felt about him before he admitted his feelings — Link would do anything for even a chance of changing Rhett’s feelings to match his own. He was sure Jill already had Rhett liking her so whatever she could teach him, he needed to know it.    
  
And soon. Link felt like time was running out, or it was just his patience that was.    
  
Rhett stirred in his sleep and it startled Link out of his thoughts so much that when he moved away, he nearly fell onto his back off the bed.    
  
Link scrambled to stand up, and looked down at Rhett once he was safely on his feet.    
  
“Mornin’,” Link mumbled, grimacing apologetically for being such a spazz.   
  
Rhett shifted uncomfortably, hiding his eyes from Link when he looked down at himself. Suddenly, Rhett seemed preoccupied with finding the duvet and covering himself up.    
  
“Mornin’,” he murmured back, once he pulled it up to his middle.    
  
Link found himself looking around confusedly until he decided to march into the bathroom with a nervous laugh, almost missing Rhett’s sweeping glance at his behind.    
  
Link didn’t know what to make of that one.    
  
Link didn’t know what to make of a lot of things, he decided. When he got out of the bathroom and moved around the room with Rhett as they got ready for the day, not talking or acknowledging each other much save for a few secret-but-caught glances, Link found himself thinking of how weirdly they’d treated their ownership of the room.   
Instead of spending a lot of time together in a sort of domestic manner, all they did was amble about confusedly, bumping into each other in all sorts of weird ways. Instead of playing video games with Rhett, Link was practicing kissing him, and that was just the start of it. It was strange, and Link hoped that eventually they could settle into normality, but he didn’t want to give up the kissing. Maybe there was a normality for them that included kissing, but to Link that sounded like wishful thinking.   
  
—   
  
Rhett walked Link to his class. Link wouldn’t accept any other explanation for what happened, even if Rhett was to attend classes in the same building for the day. Rhett did, as if to addle Link’s deluded thoughts, walk with Link right up to the door of his classroom, and then paused there to say his goodbye.   
  
“Hold on,” Link said, when Rhett was about to turn and walk away. They’d gotten this far, so maybe—   
  
“Yes?” Rhett asked, turning back.   
  
Link gulped. “Well. Um. Kinda feels like we practiced for nothing,” he said, voice shaking.   
  
The spot between Rhett’s eyebrows creased just slightly and Link knew he was not being as eloquent as he should be.   
  
“Kiss me?” Link asked, and Rhett’s eyebrows shot up, but he stepped a little closer.  _ Really? _ Link almost found himself asking, because _ was it really that easy? _

 

Rhett looked down at Link for a moment, shifting as if to perfectly align himself with him. Rhett brought one hand up and placed it on Link’s cheek, thumb moving up once in a gentle flick, caressing Link’s cheekbone and making him part his lips. Link’s shaky hands found their place on Rhett’s hips and held on as Rhett leaned down, and Link tilted his chin up. Their lips met in a slow, sweet kiss, something that, Link thought, felt a bit more intimate than a simple good-bye peck. 

 

Rhett pulled Link in close, and Link squeezed his eyes shut tighter, as if that would help him in not noticing the fact that they were surrounded by all sorts of people. When Rhett parted his lips, the people magically faded not into the background but, if possible, behind the background. When Rhett’s tongue touched Link’s bottom lip, all was calm. Well, all was calm around him — on the inside, Link felt like he could explode any second.   
  
Link was about to part his own lips in earnest when, after a poignant cough from someone to their right, Rhett pulled away.   
  
Link blinked owlishly as he tried to recover from the kiss. His eyes were still fixed on Rhett when Rhett looked over at the person who’d interrupted. Link couldn’t get enough of looking at Rhett, how his lips were reddened, how good he looked, even with his head bowed shyly. Link just wanted to take him by the collar of his shirt, drag him out behind the building, and kiss the crap out of him. But he found it deep within himself to avert his eyes from Rhett and look at the perpetrator of the rude interruption. 

 

When he did so, he was faced with Gregg — whose eyebrows were so far up, Link thought it wouldn’t be long until they blended into his hairline.   
  
“Sorry to interrupt,” Gregg said with a smirk and a wide-eyed look at Rhett, and Link looked down, trying to keep his grin at bay.   
  
“What do you want,” Rhett mumbled, and when Link looked at him, he could see him blushing. Rhett’s eyes flicked up to Link’s for a second, but then he quickly looked down at his shoes, cheeks even redder than before.    
  
Gregg took no offence at Rhett’s grumpy tone, and just smiled even wider. When Rhett looked back up at him, however, the smile contorted into an apologetic grimace.   
  
“Sooo uh,” Gregg began, and Rhett raised an interested eyebrow. “It’s not three days,” Gregg said slowly, but then rapidly sped up — nevermind the fact that Link had no idea what he was talking about, “it’s a week and uh, now you kinda have to go ‘cause you gotta take my plane ticket ‘cause my dad said I better fucking show up to this test, and yeah, uh, gotta go to class now, just one more thing, Link — you wanna study together tomorrow?”   
  
Perhaps usually Link would have been surprised at Gregg’s offer for them to pair up in studying, but not when a whole other plethora of information had just been dumped on his head.   
  
Gregg rushed off, then, leaving Link to gape after him. Shaking his head, he turned to Rhett. “What is this?” he asked confusedly.   
  
Rhett shrugged, “Oh, just this trip to Alaska.”   
  
“Alaska?” Link was really trying to keep his cool. “Oh?” Link felt like his heart had stopped beating. “You didn’t tell me you were going,” he said, steadily rambling on into the start of a conversation with himself.   
  
Rhett saved him from that by saying, “It’s not a big deal.”   
  
Link didn’t want to know. Obviously, he was very curious, but his eyes were burning with fresh tears, ones he didn’t want Rhett seeing spill. “Should go to class,” was what Link therefore said, and Rhett, like snapping out of it, nodded his head vigorously.   
  
“‘Course. I’ll see ya, uh, see ya later.”   
  
“See ya,” Link choked out and turned on his heel before slipping through the classroom door. Link wiped the dampness from his eyes with his sleeves and hoped that no one had seen him while simultaneously trying to calm himself down.   
  


Just like Rhett had said, it was no big deal.    
  
Yep. No big deal. It was just that Link probably revealed too much about how he felt, and now Rhett wanted away from him. A thousand freaking miles away from him.    
  
—

 

Before he met with Jill for lunch, Link snuck off to the library to check the distance between Raleigh and Juneau. When he found out that the thousand miles he’d been imagining was more like four thousand, it took him all the strength he had not to pass out amongst the atlases.

 

He sat in one of the chairs in the library until his breath could even out, and then some. He couldn’t help but to think of all the daydreams he had about spring break and the fact that they were now completely obliterated. This, paired with the line in the cafeteria, made him only slightly late to lunch.

 

“Sorry I’m late,” he announced to the table upon his arrival, and Rhett scooched over to make room for him to sit. Once Link was sat next to him and opposite Jill, he looked up from his platter and took a moment to study their faces.   
  
“Wha—” Link began slowly, but was cut off by Jill:   
  
“Rhett was just telling me about your arrangement.”   
  
Link hoped the grin he gave her didn’t look overly nervous. “Yes…” he said lamely, as if allowing her to go on.   
  
“About how not-in-love you are. Which is what you are, hm? Not in love with each other. And you’re one-hundred-percent straight,” she said slowly, as if to confirm it with them. 

 

Link should have responded with something better than a nervous breath of laughter through which something akin to a ‘yes’ got through. He should have responded more like Rhett, with his pause and very quiet “Yep.”   
  
It was silent for a moment after that, and Jill looked at him in a curious way, but it wasn’t a tiny bit malicious. Link gulped, gauging every one of her facial movements carefully. “You… aren’t mad?”   
  
“No,” Jill said, shrugging her shoulders, “You just betrayed my trust, it’s fine,” she said, and to Link it looked like she was at least half-teasing, but the words still stung.   
  
“I’m sorry,” Link said at the same time that Rhett said, “Alright, my job’s done here,” and stood up.    
  
“Rhett,” Link asked, unable to decide if he sounded pleading or scolding.    
  
“What?” Rhett asked, and Link knew he was feigning cluelessness and obviously thought he was right at whatever decision he’d made. Link narrowed his eyes at him — Rhett’s reaction was one of a true Libra, if those magazines Angel kept next to the toilet were anything to go by. (And yes, Link had once been too desperate to climb the stairs to use the can and found that Angel and Angelo had a tendency to leave their bedroom door unlocked. The room had reeked of sex and potpourri that smelled like car air fresheners. Link suppressed a shiver at the recollection.)   
  
“Nothing,” Link said in a tone that clearly conveyed there was  _ something, _ and felt a pang in his chest when Rhett actually walked away and left it at that. He was looking after Rhett for a long while before Jill’s voice made him snap out of it.   
  


“Link,” Jill said, raising an eyebrow, “Walk with me?”   
  
Link turned to see that she was on her feet now too. He nodded and stood up instantly, scooping his slice of pizza and his OJ into his hands, leaving his cup of vanilla pudding behind to sit out in the sun. 

 

“What’s going on?” Jill asked when they stepped off the patio and towards the shaded path that led toward the grove.    
  
Link sighed, chewing his pizza slowly before he spoke. There were so many ways to go about this, so many things to explain. Link tried to settle on the simplest one. “Everything he said about our relationship being fake is true. He told you ‘cause he wanted to help me out. He thinks I like you.”   
  
Link could feel Jill looking at him, and she did so for quite a bit before she spoke.   
  
“Do you?” her voice revealed nothing to Link, not even curiosity.   
  
“Yes. A lot,” Link said. He had realised he couldn’t take advantage of her just as much as he couldn’t take advantage of Rhett. It was easy to think of using her when it was just him and his imagination, but with the real Jill standing next to him, he realised how unfair it would be to her. “But not like that.”   
  
When Link looked at her, Jill was smiling.    
  
“Good, she said, “I’m sick and tired of guys making friends with me just to try and get in my pants.”   
  
Link grinned, casting his eyes down deliberately. “They  _ are _ nice pants…”   
  
“Oh really? They’re  _ Diesel _ . Thanks,” she forced out sweetly, but then immediately frowned. “What the heck, Link?” she hissed.   
  
Link sighed. “I know, listen, I should be heading to class, and I wanna explain it to you the right way. You wanna come over to mine later? Like, 7-ish? Rhett’ll be out then.”   
  
Jill folded her arms across her chest and turned, and so they started walking in the opposite direction.    
  
“Yeah, I guess,” she said, “I can tell that you have a lot on your plate so I’m gonna let you off. Um. You really think these jeans are cute?”    
  
The smooth way in which she changed the topic made Link fall in love with her all over again. Well, it made him fall in  _ friend-love _ with her all over again. Link smiled, “Super cute.”   
  
Jill walked a step ahead of him and looked over her shoulder, “Don’t look like you’re looking, but, how does my butt look in them?”   
  
Link shook his head, smile widening. Jill laughed and slowed down her stride to match Link’s.   
  
“Super cute,” Link informed her.    
  
—   
  
“I can’t stay long,” Jill informed him as soon as he opened the door, “Watching  _ Friends _ with Jess tonight.”   
  
“Oh, Gosh,” Link said, sidestepping to let her into the room, “I almost forgot that it’s tonight.”   
  
Jill turned to face him, walking backwards into the room, “Link, oh my God. I can’t believe Ross slept with that Chloe girl! I’m dying for the next episode.”   
  
Link nodded his head, “It’s like, can Ross and Rachel just not get themselves together and, well, be together?”    
  
“Right?” Jill asked, raising her hands in a hopeless gesture before sitting down onto the edge of the bed. “They’re perfect for each other,” she said dramatically.    
  
Link nodded to confirm it and walked over to the dresser. He leaned against it, and Jill toed her shoes off and pulled her feet up on the bed, turning to face him.   
  
Jill was looking at him with a weird, knowing look. “Speaking of… Does Rhett have class now?”   
  
Link shook his head and gave her a toothy grin. “Nah. Word’s out that  _ McDonald’s _ is really cheap today so him and Gregg went to stack up.”   
  
Jill narrowed her eyes. “Stack up?”   
  
Link laughed. “When Rhett goes to  _ Mickey Dee’s _ , he goes for the month.”   
  
Jill grimaced. “I can’t tell if that’s gross or smart.”   
  
“ _ Big Macs _ will last you forever,” Link said, in Rhett’s defense.   
  
“Gross,” Jill said, feigning a shudder. Smoothly, she transitioned into a completely different topic of conversation: “So. You wanna start telling me what all of this was about?” She posed the question while looking around the room, as if she thought the room was part of it, while, really, Link could have fallen in love with Rhett in any place in the world. He could fall in love with Rhett in a ditch. Which reminded him of the time his car careened into a ditch, nearly killing the both of them. How he was so overwhelmed with fear and something else he couldn’t quite put a finger on. And Gosh, how did Link not seen that the fact that he didn’t know what to do with himself just meant he wasn’t taking enough options into consideration.    
Hindsight 20/20, he wanted to kiss Rhett.   
  
“What do you mean?” Link asked.   
  
Jill brought a hand up to put a lock of hair behind her ear. “I mean clearly you guys just got the room to have an excuse to get together ‘cause you’re in love, but then you told me otherwise ‘cause Rhett thinks you like me and… I don’t get that part.”   
  
“No,” Link shook his head, leaning back against the dresser. “It’s not like that. Or it is, a little, ‘cause I am in love with him. But we got the room just ‘cause it was a cool room and there’s not way Rhett would ever go with a guy—”   
  
“Hold on,” Jill interrupted him with a scoff,  _ “Wouldn’t ever go with a guy?” _   
  
Link shook his head, “It’s Rhett, Jill. He’s as straight as an arrow. No way would he ever go with a guy, especially me.”   
  
“Okay,  _ Rachel,” _ she said with a wink that Link took offence to.   
  
“If you mean that I’m her and Rhett is Ross, real funny, but that’s not what it’s like.”   
  
“It’s totally not like: everyone sees it but you two?” Jill countered, and Link looked away huffily.   
  
Jill seemed to have taken pity on him then and smiled, trying to catch his eye before she spoke calmly. “You’re crazy for thinking he doesn’t like you just as much as you like him.”   
  
Link looked at her, keeping quiet as an immense feeling of helplessness overtook him.   
  
Jill shrugged her shoulders. “If you think there’s a chance that I’m right, you should test him.”   
  
“I can’t,” Link muttered, “Who knows what could happen if i say something gay. I mean something more... romantic than usual — He might make fun of me, or not want to do this anymore and…”   
  
“Listen, your last idea was to pretend you liked me. Would it hurt to just listen to me now, as a personal favour or, I don’t know, an apology?” Jill asked, and Link felt the guilt creep back in again.   
  
Link sighed and instead of confirming it, started on the excuse immediately. “I just... it’s easier for me to kiss him when he thinks I like you and not him. It’s like, zero pressure, zero potential friendship breakups and zero ultimately depressed Links. I know it’s wrong, but I’d rather have him kiss me and think I don’t feel anything than risk having to let go of it. It’s just, Jill, I know I sound crazy, but you haven’t felt the way he kisses.”   
  
“I could, easily,” she replied, a bite to her tone.   
  
Link knew she could read the fear and pleading on his face. He hoped she could.   
  
“Wow, that was— I’m joking, obviously, Link!” she went to reassure him immediately, her cheeks reddening. “So you  _ are _ for real. Huh. I mean if you look deathly scared at the prospect of someone else kissing him—”

  
Link shrugged, corner of his lips turning up in a smile even if he was still frowning, “I wouldn’t say deathly scared…” he said, looking down at his shoes.

 

“Link,” she said, a weariness to her voice, like they’d gone over it a hundred times. “Even if he were to kiss me, you know he wouldn’t kiss me like he kisses you. Why won’t you just tell him, or show him—?” 

 

“Every day I meet these types, guys shouting faggot at me, stopping me in the hallways to ask me if I like it up the ass, getting in my face and —” Link paused to take a breath. He’d surprised both himself, and, visibly, Jill with his sudden outburst. He gulped before pressing on:  “—and half of them don’t know nothing about me but this one thing and I… I just ignore them. They can’t touch me. But if I told Rhett how I feel and he turned out to be like them…”

 

“Well, do you want to be with someone who’d treat you like that?”   
  
“Yes!” Link snapped, and immediately felt like crying and apologising a hundred times, at the same time. Instead he spoke, voice tight: “Yes, because even it’s not perfect it’s not that plain. I can’t just wipe out these feelings and even if it’s wrong, it’s Rhett.”   
  
Jill pointed a single red-painted fingernail in Link’s direction. “You know what this tells me?”   
  
Link shook his head, clueless. “What?”   
  
“That you don’t believe he could ever be that cruel to you anyway.”   
  
Deep down, Link felt like he did know this. But Rhett had never been a perfectly politically correct person. “You don’t know that…” Link told Jill, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth.   
  
“Link, it’s Rhett,” Jill said, like she was trying to make him aware of something embarrassingly obvious. She raised her hands to gesture at the room around them, “Think of Rhett and what he’s done for you in the past month. In the past, however long you’ve—”   
  
“Thirteen years,” Link whispered.   
  
Jill’s eyes widened so much, Link could imagine them popping out cartoonishly. “Thirteen—?”   
  
Link shook his head. “We’ve been together so long that I know now that I’ve loved him for years and I know there’s so many things to love about him. But we’ve also been together for so long that I’ve heard him say  _ it. _ We’re from Buies Creek which is... not the most progressive place. And even if there is only one time he called one of the guys from my neighbourhood a fag, there would always be these laughs and these sneers even when there weren’t words like that. And before when he laughed I could too and I could pretend we were in on some great straight inside joke… We — I never had to face it but now, here, I feel that thing everyone I know mocked all my life. I feel what I’m not supposed to and it’s so strong and it’s changing who I am but I don’t know if it’s, like,  _ grazed _ him.”   
  
Somewhere along Link’s speech, Jill had stood up from the bed and was now standing in front of Link. Somewhere along Link’s speech, Link had also started crying. Which was embarrassing to do, even if it was just a few of those dang tears that didn’t know how to stay in their place — and their place meant anything not visible to the girl Link had known for a month or so.    
Jill didn’t seem to mind. In fact she reached around Link’s middle and pulled him in, and Link let himself relax a little. Exhaling slowly, he leaned his head down into the crook of her shoulder. Even if he was a bit taller than her, he felt small with her comforting him. She released him and sat back down onto the bed. Pulling him down to sit next to her, he gave in and lay his head on her shoulder, snivelling pathetically.

 

Jill looked a bit bewildered by the situation, and Link couldn’t blame her.    
  
“Okay so, if you don’t know if he likes you, test him,” Jill said. Link reached up to wipe his face on his sleeve, shifting to lean on Jill in a more comfortable way.   
  


“What do you mean?” he croaked, and was stopped from getting an answer by the door opening.   
And who could it be but Rhett.  
  
Link silently prayed that Rhett wouldn’t recognise his face as one that had very recently been tear-stricken. If he did, he didn’t comment on it. In fact, he didn’t comment on anything. Rhett strode through the room coldly, not looking at either Link or Jill.   
  
“Crap,” Jill said, looking around the room until her eyes settled on the clock above their desks. “It starts in fifteen minutes!” she whisper-shouted, and Link detached himself from the literal shoulder-to-cry-on.  
  
“Oh,” Link said dumbly, still looking at Rhett, who seemed to be adamant on not returning his gaze. “Let me walk you out,” Link said absently, eyes still on Rhett.  
  
“Me or him?” Jill teased quietly, but Rhett turned, seemingly having picked up on the fact that he was being spoken of.   
  
Link stood up shakily, stretching his hands behind his back and then letting them rest by his sides when he realised he looked like an excited schoolgirl. “You wanna go for a walk, bo?”  
  
Rhett looked at him and shook his head. “I should start packing,” Rhett said, tone clipped, and Link nodded.  
  
“When’s your flight?” Link asked then, and Rhett shrugged.  
  
“Tomorrow.”  
  
“Rhett!” Link said through a gasp, and Rhett smirked.   
  
Link shook his head, lips tugging up into a smile. He really couldn’t help it. “God, that’s so you.”  
  
Rhett mirrored the smile, “Don’t use the Lord’s name in vain, Link.”  
  
Link laughed.  
  
“Ten minutes,” Jill alerted Link from the doorway. Link hadn’t even noticed that she’d moved.  
  
Upon hearing her speak, Rhett looked at her and was seemingly instantly annoyed, but when his gaze returned to Link’s face, his eyes softened.   
  
Link gave him a final smile. “I’ll see ya in five, you need to tell me everything about Alaska,” Link said, pointing a finger at him as a warning as he walked backwards to the door.  
  
Rhett grinned. “See ya later, love.”  
  
Link froze by the door, and Jill pulled him through it, lingering to listen to Rhett say:  
  
“Uh that’s not what. Crap, not what it—”  
  
Jill cut him off with a smile and a: “Yeah, okay, Rhett.”  
  
Having been aggressively ushered out of the room on the account of Jill making it back to her room in time for _Friends,_ Link didn’t get to catch onto anything Rhett may have said after.   
  
The first three-hundred (at least) steps to Jill’s dorm were spent with her wondering at how Rhett and Link weren’t fucking already and yet Rhett actually, in real life, on this plane of existence, just called him _‘love’._   
  
It was when they made it to the lobby of Owen Hall that she instructed Link to listen to her carefully, and boy did he listen.  
  


“The first thing you do if you don’t wanna take a big risk,” she said, “is you check if there’s anyone else he likes. If his heart’s set on someone else, then it can’t be set on you. You’ll know at least partly.”

 

—

 

When Link came back to their room, he was faced with a slightly surprising sight. It was very early in the evening, but Rhett was already in bed. Yes, Link had not returned after his promised ‘five’ but a bit longer, after Jill insisted he come in and have a sip of  _ Surge _ , which was some kind of new soda concocted to rival  _ Mountain Dew _ . For some reason, Jill knew this, and was very passionate in telling it to Link. Then she made him decide which was better — the new drink or ‘goblin piss’, which was a cute nickname she’d given to  _ Mountain Dew.  _ _  
_   
Link couldn’t really care either way, but stayed for a can of  _ Surge _ and a few minutes of good old television. On the first commercial break, he decided to walk himself back to where Rhett was.    
  
Rhett being already half-asleep was not something Link was counting on finding, but what helped Link connect the dots was the  _ Big Mac _ wrapper on Rhett’s nightstand. Sleeping was often the next step after Rhett pigged out.

 

Link stripped down to his underwear and climbed onto his side of the bed on his hands and knees, leaning down, his face close to Rhett’s. “Rhett? Rhett, you awake?”   
  
Rhett, who’d been lying on his side facing Link, flipped over to lay on his back.   
  
Link took that as a yes. “Can I ask you something?”   
  
Rhett turned again, back to face Link, except now he was halfway on his front and had one of his cheeks pressed into his pillow. “G’on.”   
  
“You know how you gave Jill over to me—”   
  
Rhett groaned.   
  
Link gulped, stretching out on the bed next to Rhett. “Do you like anyone?”   
  
Rhett moved his head up as if rubbing the side of his face against the pillow before murmuring: “Gregg’s okay. Mark and Trevor too.”   
  
“No, dummy,” Link whispered and then felt like a dummy for calling Rhett  _ dummy. _   
“Is there anyone you _ like _ -like?”   
  
Rhett smacked his lips sleepily. Cutely, Link thought.    
  
“What kind of a question is that?” Rhett grumbled, and Link’s heart stopped. “I got a freakin’ boyfriend.”   
  
Link smiled, knowing that if he moved his head any closer to Rhett’s he’d no longer be laying on his pillow. ”No man, seriously.”   
  
Rhett groaned and opened one of his eyes. “I’m in a relationship, so, back off.”   
  
Link gasped, whispering: “S’not like I was coming onto you — wait, why do I gotta justify myself if I’m your—”   
  
Rhett smirked and closed his eye again.   
  
Link chose to use this moment of Rhett’s sleepiness, and not only to look at him and marvel at how handsome he was. “Wait… I  _ am _ your only boyfriend?”   
  
“Yes.”   
  
“Good,” Link whispered, more to himself. He turned onto his back, but was itching to ask Rhett again: “But really, there’s no one you like? Or anyone you would like if you weren’t  _ taken?” _   
  
“Lemme sleep,” Rhett mumbled.   
  
Link smiled, turning back to the ceiling. “Fine. Don’t tell me.”   
  
Link found that he was too restless to try and sleep anytime soon. He really wanted to watch the rest of the new episode of  _ Friends, _ but Rhett was tired and Link didn’t want to disturb his sleep. He half-sat up in bed and looked around the room, especially the foot of the closet where Rhett’s half-packed suitcase was.   
  
“One more question,” Link whispered, and Rhett hummed in response.   
  
“When’s your flight tomorrow?”   
  
Rhett was quiet for a moment, but then mumbled, “Six p.m.”

  
_ Good, _ Link thought, setting his alarm for seven a.m. before getting out of bed to go and have a gratuitous wank in the shower. Six p.m. was good. He could pack Rhett up by six p.m.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also can i just say that the comments i get like… they literally make my life? especially the ones that tell me about how this fic influences your day-to-day, like, when someone commented this fic reminds them of their first crush, when @potentialchairs said that they and their roommate both read it and are excited for updates, and i just, god (i cried over that one, thank you so much)  
> (and i can’t forget about the anon on @remembertherandler’s blog. natas told me to go check it out and i. someone pulled a muscle during activities involving my and lauren’s fic and i. i just love everything. thank you.)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more of a 9.2, still link’s perspective!

Even if Link went to bed with a smile, he’d wake up paranoid, trying to anxiously find clues that would point to Rhett liking a girl and hiding her from Link. Or... could it be a  _ guy? _ What if, and this was quite radical but, what if Rhett didn’t mind if it was a guy now? He didn’t seem to dislike the porn, so —

 

 

“Link..” Jill sighed, smoothing the few strands that came loose from her ponytail back from her forehead. She was sitting in her, or Jess’ — Link didn’t know — chair, while Link sat on the edge of her bed.    
He had decided to waste the time until Rhett woke up in her room. Link himself had awoken at seven; gathered, caringly folded and separated all of Rhett’s clothes (but didn’t put them in Rhett’s suitcase, lest Rhett want to pack them himself), and placed all the other things Rhett might need onto his desk. All of this Link had done by nine. Half an hour later, freshly washed and dressed, he had made it to Jill’s room.

 

“He was just joking! He didn’t want to talk about it so he joked about having a boyfriend, or having me, when we know he doesn’t really have me, or he does, but — uh. Gosh. He didn’t say he liked me. He can’t like me.”

 

“The only way he could not like you was if you forbade him from liking you,” Jill said, spinning in her chair as she waited for the tea she’d made earlier to cool off a little.   
  
“Rhett could never like me, and you — you know in which way I mean it.”   
  
Jill rolled her eyes. “You’re talkin’ out of your ass. I can totally picture you together.  _ Together _ together.”

 

“Fake relationship turned real, when has that ever happened?” Link asked with a scoff. He shook his head, not waiting for Jill’s reply. “I shouldn’t even think about it. I just gotta wait it out. This will fizzle out like all things do and I’ll be back to wanting him as none more than a friend.”

  
“Fizzle out?”

  
“Everything has an expiration date,” Link said wisely, albeit very cynically. Jill looked him up and down as if scanning him before narrowing her eyes. When she spoke, what she said shook Link. It was as if it took her a few days to see what he could sometimes overlook himself.   
  
Smiling knowingly, she asked: “Has anything ever, with Rhett?” 

  
It shut Link right up.

  
“So when do you have to go?” Jill asked, carefully picking up her steaming cup of tea. She’d complained about her throat being scratchy, something about too many late nights or other, and so justified her choice of beverage for the day.    
  
Jill blew on her tea to cool it as Link spoke. “His flight is at six, we’re meeting the guys at the airport at four. All of them wanted to meet at five, but who’s crazy enough not to arrive at the airport at least two hours early?”   
  
“Amen, brother,” Jill said and sat her cup back down.    
  
“So, you don’t have to go for a few hours,” Jill said, extending her fingers one by one as if she were counting the hours Link had until they had to go. “Can’t be more than an hour to the airport.”    
  
“Yeah,” Link said, moving up on the bed to that he could lean back against the wall as he sat.   
  
Jill picked her cup back up and shrugged one shoulder, audibly feigning disinterest when she spoke: “Too bad you wanna just wait your crush out. I was thinking we could see if Rhett’s giving off any signs that he likes you.”   
  
Link knew she could hear him gulp. He looked at her, eyes as wide as saucers, as she sipped her tea slowly.    
  
“What?” Link croaked, “Could you tell if he does? How could you tell?”   
  
“He’s a guy, of course I can tell!” Jill giggled and shook her head giddily. “Why would you want to know?”   
  
“You know why!” Link exclaimed indignantly, making Jill laugh.   
  
“Alright, alright. Guess there’s no point in making you spell it out, no matter how satisfactory it would be.”   
  
Link shook his head a little, smiling. “I feel like I wanna ask you to stop giving me hope, ‘cause nothing —  _ nothing  _ good can come out of this.”   
  
“Nothing?” she asked with a smirk.   
  
“Nothing, ‘cause he doesn’t like me.”   
  
Jill rolled her eyes, again. “Not even a little fun while we plan how you’re going to win him over, then?”   
  
She must have been able to read the surprise and excitement on Link’s face because she jumped out of her chair and neared him, her index finger raised just in front of his nose in warning.   
“But first,” she said sharply, “You have to promise to tell me everything I ask you, and be honest. It doesn’t matter to me, you’re the one we’re doing this for.”

  
“Okay,” Link said, feeling a bit breathless. Could she really do that, just  _ know _ something like that through any signs Rhett might give off?

 

Jill sat herself back in her chair and went to sip her tea again. 

 

“So,” she began, having swallowed her mouthful of tea, “It’s a pretty backwards situation here, where you gone as far as kissing—”   
  
Link gritted his teeth in a smile that looked more like a grimace. Jill instantly picked up on it.   
  
“Link…” she said slowly, narrowing her eyes. She lowered her cup into her lap, leaning forward over it. “What happened?”   
  
Link cleared his throat and pulled himself up a little, sitting straighter up against the wall but shrinking at the same time, all to move a bit further away from Jill’s menacing look.    
  
“Well… When I came home a few days ago, I, uh, caught Rhett… And I... joined him, I mean —” Link said, and Jill gasped, her brows furrowing.   
  
“So you  _ have _ fucked!”

 

“No!” Link exclaimed, raising one hand up to stop her. “No, we just… Jerked off together. But there was no eye contact or anything. Well, almost no eye contact…”   
  
“Link!” Jill seemed pleasantly shocked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

 

“Cause you’d think it’s a big deal, when it isn’t.”   
  
“Oh my god,” Jill said with a smile, staring at Link, who stared back at her. He had to admit, for how much of a  _ not-a-big-deal _ it was, it had been pretty amazing.   
  
With how severe their stare-off was, they didn’t notice Jess all until she climbed down from the top bunk. Her hair ruffled and eyes still a bit swollen with sleep, she nodded at the both of them before heading for the fridge.    
  
Link gaped after her. Once she was rummaging through the fridge, she looked over her shoulder at him and smiled sleepily. “Hey, how you been?”   
  
Link shook his head. “I — where — how long have you been there?” he asked, panicking.   
  
Jess opted for a can of  _ Surge _ and started making her way back. She popped it open before languidly saying, “Relax, bro. I just woke up.”   
She took a sip of her drink and leaned against the closet, standing next to Jill. Link was almost pacified by the realisation that she had slept through his and Jill’s conversation, when Jess spoke again.   
  
“So who jerked you off?” she asked, nonchalantly. Then, she cracked a wide smile. “Oh, was it Rhett?” she asked excitedly, punctuating it by raising her eyebrows.   
  
Jill giggled and answered for Link, “He wishes. He jerked himself off.”   
  
Jess raised her eyebrows even further, her eyes widening as she looked from Jill to Link. “Oh, really? But at least now we know that  _ the gentleman doth wish it. _ Which, like, called it.”   
  
“What?” Link asked, gaping like a fish, looking between the two girls in front of him.   
  
Jill shook her head at him. “Link, I swear, everyone knows y’all are in love.”   
  
Jess snorted. “Except the two of you.”   
  
Jill pointed up at Jess with a smug expression. “What’d I tell ya?” she asked, and Link slumped back against the wall.    
  
Closing his eyes, he lamented every decision he’d ever made in his life. There was something he was eager to get back to, though. “Fine. Yes. Can we just get back to the  _ plan?” _

  
“I guess,” Jill said, shaking her head fondly.   
  
“Oooh, what’s this?” Jess asked, and Link tried his best to explain.   
  
“Jill told me she could tell me if Rhett likes me, like, she could read the signs for me.”   
  
“That was before I knew about the circlejerk. Or, like,  _ line _ jerk, with it being just the two of them.”   
  
Jess folded her arms and looked up, pinching her face like she was thinking hard. “Nah. The line which passes through two dots is usually straight, which is  _ so _ not them.” Jess cast her eyes down to Link, lips which were previously pursed in thought now pursed in a smug smile. “Am I right, Link?”   
  
Link shook his head, trying to school his expression into something unamused, all the while he could see Jill biting the inside of her cheek so as not to laugh.

 

“You want signs that he likes you?” Jess asked, and had all of Link’s attention in a heartbeat, “Well, here’s one: he  _ does—” _

 

“Um,” Jill finally tried, pausing a little to rein in her smile before speaking. “Oh, I’ve got a good one,” both Link and Jess instantly looked at her, and she tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear before speaking. “I can usually tell a guy is into me when he tries really hard to show off.”

 

Jess nodded vigorously. “Yeah! Oh, like, for example, Jill—” she turned to the other girl, making her eyes widen.   
  
“Yeah?”   
  
“Did you know I was the top mathlete at my high school?”   
  
Jill shook her head, “Huh.”   
  
Jess smiled and turned to Link. “Pretty impressive, I know. So, does Rhett like to show off? Like, more than normal people do?” she asked before taking a sip of her drink.   
  
“I mean, yeah,” Link said, shrugging his shoulders. “He’s pretty smart. And boy does he let me know it.”   
  
Jill smiled, “Means he likes you,” she said simply.

 

“What? No, he’s just a freakin’ know-it-all.”    
  
“Oh, Link,” Jess said, sighing dramatically, “Link, Link, Link.”   
  
Jill nodded. “I have to agree,” she said, and Link realised there was probably some deeper meaning in Jess’  _ Link _ s that went over his head. “He probably really cares about what you think of him and wants to show you how smart he is. Especially if things like knowledge and just, being smart, are important to him—”

 

Link scoffed, “If it is, dunno why he’d be interested in me…”

 

Jess burped, grabbing the attention of the other two, but didn’t seem to be preoccupied with it herself. Instead of being scandalised at it, she just chose to use her moment in the limelight to speak: “If you’re planning on being self-deprecating for no good reason, I can just show you the door.”   
  
Link kept quiet, and grumpily replied with a small, “Okay.”   
  
Jess went on: “I got another one. I’ve got this down to a science, you see. Say, does he raise his eyebrows when he sees you?”   
  
Link opened his mouth and closed it, and then opened it again, considering.  _ “...What?” _   
  
Jess shook her head in disbelief. “Okay, picture this; You walk into a room, and Rhett’s eyes are immediately on you—” here she paused and looked at Link intently, as if waiting for him to say something, but he couldn’t think of what to say. So far she’d got that one sentence of a scenario right. He turned his palm up, signaling for her to go on, and after giving him an incredulous look, she did, “... And as he sees you, his eyebrows just go up, kinda like he’s surprised a little, but… not quite.”   
  
Link tried to think back to when he could have noticed something like that, and found himself at a loss. “I don’t know, don’t really notice his eyebrows.”   
  
Jess sighed.  _ “Amateurs.” _   
  
Link was slowly becoming indignant, “What the heck does this have to do with anything?”   
  
Jill stepped in to pacify him, “Guys don’t even notice they do it themselves, but when a guy sees something he likes, his eyebrows go up. In most cases, anyway.”   
  
“Huh,” Link said, looking down as he thought it over. “I’ll try to pay attention in the future.”   
  
Jess nudged Jill with her elbow, “He’s learning,” she said, and Link had to roll his eyes at her.   
  
“What do you want?” Jess asked, grinning as she feigned indignance, “That’s how I knew about you when we met — no eyebrow raise for miles.” 

Link scrunched his face up, his own indignance not pretend, “You thought I was your ex boyfriend and charged at me!”   
  
“When was this?” Jill piped up from where she was sitting, making Jess and Link share a quick, uncomfortable look.   
  
“We saw each other at this party,” Jess said quietly. “Tell you later,” she whispered, and Jill nodded, smiling at her.    
  
With that, neither Jess nor Link dared bring up anything that might relate to it again.   
  
Lucky for them, Jill was there, and she was ready to spill some wisdom. 

 

“He’ll touch you,” Jill said matter-o-factly, and Link had to notice that her eyes were on Jess’s hands, “When he doesn’t really need to.”

 

Jess smiled and brought one hand over to Jill’s hair, re-tucking that one lock behind her ear.    
  
Jill seemed to shiver a little, and in trying to back away, a bit of her tea sloshed over the rim of her cup and onto the saucer. So what she really ended up spilling was tea.   
  
Jess just went on for her as if nothing odd had transpired. Link felt like he should remind Jess that she didn’t need to demonstrate each sign, but he thought he’d better just let them enjoy it.   
  
“He’ll touch you a lot,” Jess said, running her fingers up Jill’s arm, “or, he won’t touch you at all, and be really weird about it.”

 

Link raised a hand to scratch the side of his neck. “Well, I guess there’s something to that one. When we practice kissing and stuff—” the way Jess  _ aww _ ’d at that wasn’t overheard, but it wasn’t addressed either, “—it’s like. We’re  _ kissin’ _ . You know what I mean? And when it’s just normal times it’s not… normal. I just feel so weird around him, like I don’t know how to be his friend anymore.”   
  
Jill nodded, and Jess softened her voice when speaking again. “It’s good to think of it in terms of yourself, ‘cause I guarantee he’s exactly the same — but, yeah. You probably look weird as heck when he touches you. He’s your crush, man, we’ve all been there.”   
  
Link nodded, unsure of whether to smile or wince at the word  _ crush. _ _  
_   
“He’ll look at you when you aren’t looking,” Jill said suddenly, looking up at Jess as she took a sip of her drink. When Jess looked down at her to agree with her, Jill averted her eyes.   
  
“Wish I could see him do that,” Link joked, huffing out a laugh.   
  
Jess nodded, “Me too. Must be adorable as fuck.”   
  
Link blushed and averted his gaze. With all the things they’d pointed out so far, he decided he had enough for one day. What he felt would carry him through the rest of the day was the odd hope they’d planted in his heart, that Rhett could actually like him.   
  
“Should be heading back,” Link said, and Jill nodded.    
  
Jess leaned in real close and put a hand on his shoulder, “Pay attention to where his eyes are. If he looks at your lips, you know what that means.”

 

—   
  
Link could guess what it meant, having kissed a fair few girls in his time. But pre-kissing wasn’t the only time people looked at your lips. Sometimes people just looked at your lips when you were talking or something, right?   
  
Now, Link didn’t want to make excuses for why anything Rhett did couldn’t mean he liked him; Link  _ wanted _ Rhett to like him, but he had to carefully think everything through, even if his heart did speed up happily when something like that happened. ‘Cause there could be a million reasons Rhett might raise his eyebrows upon seeing Link besides Rhett being into him — Rhett liked him, as a friend, and he could just be happy to see him. He could be happier than usual because after that day, he wouldn’t see Link for a while. Or, raising his eyebrows might just be something that Rhett  _ did. _   
In any case, there was no denying it that when Rhett noticed Link entered their room, his eyebrows slightly, but very definitely, shot up. Whatever the reason for it.

 

Link figured his own did too, but instead of dwelling on that, he decided to focus on the smile Rhett was giving him.   
  
“Hey,” Rhett greeted him, and Link felt like it knocked the wind out of him. It was exactly one of the reasons why Link had to second-guess everything. If he misread this, if he acted upon his feelings and Rhett didn’t return them, it would crush him.   
  
A crush would crush him.  _ Huh. _ _  
_   
Well, if you could call what Link felt for Rhett something as mundane as a  _ crush. _

 

“Hey,” Link responded weakly, unable to fight off the smile. He made his way over to the bed and looked at Rhett as he rummaged through the remaining clothes in the closet — in the end he picked up one of Link’s flannels, and Link couldn’t think to stop him. He just stared at him, motionless.   
  
“So where were you?” Rhett asked, shaking Link out of his daze.   
  
“Just at Jill’s,” Link said dumbly, looking at Rhett’s half-nakedness as Rhett spread open the shirt. 

 

The corners of Rhett’s lips relaxed from their smile. “Ah, cool. You had fun?”   
  
Link shrugged one shoulder, “Was alright…” he mumbled, sitting on the edge of the bed, feeling like if he didn’t, he’d soon pass out.    
  
Rhett put the flannel on and let it hang loose, unbuttoned. He sat down next to Link and smiled again. “Thanks for packing my stuff up.”   
  
Link grinned, decided on not getting distracted by Rhett’s pecs and actually trying to form a coherent sentence. “Thanks for letting me. I couldn’t bare to see you try to do it and then forget to pack half of it,” Link said, a tiny bit smug.   
  
“Ow,” Rhett said, feigning offense, “You really know how to make a guy feel useful.”   
  
Link smiled at him before shaking his head, “You should feel useful.”   
  
Rhett looked at him curiously, and Link soldiered on, even through the profuse blushing he was suddenly subjected to. “I wouldn’t know what to do without you,” Link said, looking up at Rhett, who was looking at him with gentle, attentive eyes. “When you leave… Honestly — I dunno how I’m gonna survive this week.”

 

Rhett grinned a little and leaned in to nudge Link’s arm with his own. “You’ll be alright,” Rhett said easily, “It’s me who should be worried about surviving. Hope they have McDonalds in Alaska.”   
  
Link laughed, though he felt a bit like crying. Looking down at his hands in his lap, he said, “They do.”   
  
Rhett nodded thoughtfully and Link looked up at him, staring at him all until Rhett met his eyes curiously.    
  
Thing is, Link had, while he was packing Rhett’s stuff, been thinking of a goodbye speech. All memories of the things he wanted to say fled his mind, now, and he found himself trying to think of what he could say, something that would have Rhett remember him in a positive light. And then, he remembered all that Jess and Jill had said about touching, and without thinking a lot, he brought his hand up to Rhett’s bicep and held it there.   
  
“You’ll have fun,” he said lamely, noticing how Rhett cast his eyes down to where Link was touching him. Suddenly feeling very weird about it, Link retracted his hand back into his lap. There were many things he wanted to say, but none which he felt he could. This attributed to there being a slightly awkward silence.

 

Rhett broke it with tentative, happy words. “There’s still a bit until I go… You wanna do something together?”   
  
It eased the knot in Link’s stomach. “Uh, dunno. We could watch a movie or something,” he offered.   
  
“Oh, speaking of,” Rhett said, and then bit his bottom lip, “Or not, um… The guy at the video store said to have the tape back by Monday, so I was gonna ask you if you could return it.”   
  
Link nodded before he even knew what Rhett was talking about. “Which tape?”   
  
Rhett looked at him for a moment that was long enough for Link to get it.    
  
“Oh,” Link said, and then looked back at Rhett. “Thought you’d have returned that by now.”   
  
Rhett shrugged a shoulder, “Dunno…”  he said softly, “Maybe I thought I could get something more out of it.” 

 

Link gulped. “Maybe,” he said, voice unbearably tight.

 

Rhett looked at him, and for a moment, Link could swear that his eyes flicked down to Link’s lips, which made Link’s face heat up, but not as much as what Rhett did next.   
  
“You wanna…?” Rhett offered, tilting his head to the side to indicate the bed.

 

For lack of something less desperate to say, Link blurted out: “Take your clothes off.”   
  
Rhett’s mouth fell open in an ‘o’, but then he was shrugging Link’s shirt off, quick in his obedience. He didn’t obey all the way, though, keeping his jeans on. But then his hand dropped to his zipper, and before pulling it down, he rubbed the fabric there, pressing down a little, making Link’s breath catch in his throat.   
  
They hadn’t even put the movie on yet. 

 

As Link scrambled to do so, to give them both some excuse for being so eager, Rhett spoke in his husky voice, “Dunno if I’ll be able to jack off in Alaska, with all the guys there in the hostel.” To Link, it sounded like he was working on his own excuse, and Link understood.   
  
Once Link had the remote in his hand and the TV was powering up, he muttered bitterly, “You could fuck someone.”   
  
Rhett laughed a little, rich and deep and teasing. “Couldn’t do that to ya, bo.”   
  
And  _ good! _ Now Link was getting hard too. The guys on screen were just introducing themselves, about to fuck for the first time — or the second, in Rhett and Link’s case.    
Link averted his eyes from Rhett, face burning.    
  
“C’mon,” Rhett called him, and when Link looked at him he could see him gesturing to the bed again. Together they managed to climb over to the other side and sit up against the headboard with their pillows tucked behind their backs for comfort. 

 

Link watched as Rhett brought his hand to the front of his jeans again, now reaching for the zipper. With each tooth on the zipper being undone, Link felt his heart beating quicker, breath becoming shallower. The sounds and images coming from the direction of the TV were as faint as ever.   
  
They were still on top of the covers when Rhett lifted his ass up to shimmy out of his jeans and chuck them away. Link made no move to change that.   
  
“Do I have to tell you to take your clothes off?” Rhett teased, his voice bringing Link out of a trance.    
  
Link shook his head, pretending to look at the actors on screen, who, he now noticed, were already sprawled on top of one another.   
  
_ “Can I?” _ Rhett teased, he must’ve been teasing, even if his voice was tight and his gaze almost shy. But God, if it wasn’t teasing then what was this, and how was it happening?   
  


Link felt like speaking would choke him, but managed a small, “Yeah...”   
  
“Take ‘em off,” Rhett muttered, looking at the clothes still on Link’s body, and Link nodded, his pants unbearably tight by now. How Rhett was taking it was beyond him, and then he accidentally looked down and saw Rhett’s dick tenting the front of his boxers like it could tear through them any second. Link knew he shouldn’t look, though, so he sat up a bit straighter so that he could pull his shirt off easily, and threw it aside once it was off.

 

When he went to pull his jeans down, he noticed that Rhett was very much looking at him. So maybe looking was allowed.    
  
Link wouldn’t protest that. He hooked his fingers a layer beneath his jeans, and pulled his briefs off with them. Link could swear that he heard Rhett make some kind of noise when he did so.  _ Like he was a pleasantly surprised, but not quite. _

 

Bringing his hand down to stroke himself, Link looked over at Rhett, as if challenging him to take his own boxers off. Rhett soon got the message and pulled his boxers down until he could kick them off. His cock sprung up from under them, hard and already leaking.    
  
Link couldn’t take his eyes off him, and he wouldn’t try. His cock was beautifully interesting, long and a tad thicker than Link’s own, jutting out proudly from a bush of fair hair, the head of it slightly flushed and wet with precome. Link made a mental note to examine it up close sometime.    
  
When Rhett went to thumb at the head of his cock and the bead of precome there, the phone rang. Link tore his eyes away from Rhett for a moment, but then instantly looked back at him.    
  
“Let it ring,” Rhett said, and Link agreed. Well, he tried to. When the phone kept ringing and ringing and  _ ringing, _ Link couldn’t take it disrupting the sight and sound of Rhett anymore. With the phone being on Link’s nightstand, he figured it wouldn’t be too hard to just quickly answer it if only to hang up. The worry that it could be something important also gnawed at him, since no one called that phone, ever.    
  
He was going to pick up to hang up. But when he picked up, a shrill hello sounded, and Link thought he’d better give some sort of response, since this might’ve been serious.    
  
“Hello?” Link breathed.   
  
_ “Dean Higgs here, am I speaking to Mister Neal?”  _   
  
Link scrambled for the remote, pausing the video in the background. Once that was done, he leaned back against his pillow and sighed. He wasn’t going to stroke himself, he just held his cock in his hand, squeezing a little, hoping the conversation would be over soon.    
  
“Yeah, it’s Link,” Link said, and he could feel Rhett looking at him weirdly.   
  
_ The dean, _ Link tried to mouth to Rhett, and Rhett seemingly understood. Link moved his hand to cover himself, feeling weird to be sitting there all exposed while he was having a conversation of a somewhat professional nature on the phone. Before he could cover himself, Rhett reached out and wrapped a hand around his forearm, effectively stopping him. Link felt his heart speed up rapidly, and he looked over at Rhett with wide eyes. And then, Rhett moved closer to him, a smirk Link couldn’t say he wasn’t afraid of on his face. 

 

_ “What are you boys up to?” _ the dean asked.

  
Rhett brought the hand down to Link’s hip and ran the tips of his fingers up to Link’s thigh, carding them through the bit of dark hair there.    
  
Link felt like he was losing his head. Rhett was touching him, and that in itself was enough to overwhelm him for the week — but there was also the added bonus of him having to keep up a conversation on the phone. To expect his voice not to shake would be ludicrous. “Uh, just hanging out…” Link mumbled into the phone, looking over at Rhett. He didn’t necessarily want Rhett to stop, but…    
  
“Somethin’s hanging out,” Rhett muttered back, and Link would laugh if he didn’t want to kill him. Rhett moved his hand up and down the inside of Link’s thigh, slow and deliberate, and impossibly tender.   
  
“Shut it,” Link warned him shakily, covering the bottom of the phone with his hand to prevent the dean from hearing it.    
  
“Are you alright, Mister Neal?” the principal then asked in her cheery voice, and Link gulped. She must have been talking about something, and Link had no clue what. And now Link couldn’t answer this truthfully —   
  
Because no, not at all. Rhett got up on his knees and moved closer to him, his hand still touching every bit of skin around Link’s dick — and then his thumb, accidentally, Link guessed, brushed against the base of Link’s dick, making it twitch. 

  
“M’fine, thank you,” Link could barely find it in himself to utter.

Rhett grinned up at him then, and it was shit-eatingly apologetic, Link could see he wasn’t really sorry. Especially with the way he kept his palm flat on Link’s navel, and then moved up, closer and closer to Link. Then, Rhett threw one leg over Link, and sat on top of Link’s thighs.    
  
From the other end of the line, there came something about Link sounding a bit  _ winded. _   
  


“Uh, we’re…” Link tried, looking up at Rhett as he struggled to find words, let alone an excuse. “...Exercising,” Link said lamely, voice catching in his throat when Rhett brought his hand close to Link’s dick, and then looked at him as if asking for permission.    
  
Link stifled his groan, closing his eyes. He nodded minutely, and while the dean was saying something about that being admirable, and how she hates going to the gym too, Rhett had cupped Link’s dick in his hand.    
  
“Yeah, home workouts,” Link mumbled, and Rhett looked at him like he could barely keep the laughter in, his hand moving tantalizingly slow up and down Link’s dick. Link bit his lip to muffle a moan, moving the phone away from his ear a little if he accidentally let any slip. His eyes were exclusively on Rhett’s own now, and Rhett was looking back at him, eyes dark, lidded and mischievous.

 

_ “Is it Denise Austin?” _ the dean asked,  _ “I love her!” _   
  
“Mhm,” Link managed, closing his eyes. Rhett touching him was torturous, but the sight of Rhett touching him was even worse.    
  
Of course he’d open his eyes again immediately, because the worst part about it was that he couldn’t resist looking at him. Link felt like making a quick excuse and hanging up the phone, but he still didn’t even know what the dean wanted from him. Luckily for him, she let him know soon.

 

_ “I just wanted to check up on you, and let you know you’ll have to do a quick survey on the efficiency of living in the new building,” _ she drawled, trailing off.   
  
_ Proving to be extremely efficient, _ Link thought, as Rhett twisted his hand a little at Link’s head, making him gasp. Link didn’t reply to the dean, hoping that she would go on and wrap it up soon. 

 

_ “Let me just double-check my schedule, I’ll be right back!” _   
  


Link immediately set the phone down, pressing it against his shoulder as if to muffle it.    
  
There were so many things he wanted to say to Rhett, and he fixed his eyes on Rhett’s own before hissing his first question. “What are you doing?”    
  
Rhett smiled at him and reached down to take Link’s free hand. “I’m gonna be gone for a week,” Rhett said, eyes roaming over Link’s body before settling on his eyes again. “Need to make you miss me somehow,” Rhett said, guiding Link’s hand to his ass. Obediently, Link gave it a little squeeze, pulling Rhett closer. Link stared up at him, hoping that Rhett could read on his face how  _ unreal _ Link thought he was.   
  
_ “Aha!”  _ the dean said cheerfully, _ “Here’s my planner. Now let’s see… Ah, seems like I won’t be able to get to you two until after spring break!” _

 

Unaware of the conversation and seemingly not caring one bit for it, Rhett just sank down a little lower from where he was sitting on Link, and wrapped his hand around both Link’s and his own cock, pressing them together.    
  
Link couldn’t take it, and he let a moan slip.   
  
There was a pause, and then a concerned  _ “Are you alright?”  _ sounded from the other end of the line.   
  
“Fine, fine,” Link scrambled to reassure her, the colour rising in his cheeks. “We’d love to help, uh, whenever.”   
  
_ “Ah, good,” _ the dean said happily, and Link pressed a hand over his own mouth to stifle the moans and whimpers when Rhett started thrusting up, his dick sliding along Link’s wonderfully. Link knew he couldn’t last long, and he knew he couldn’t keep quiet when he came, so he needed to have the dean hang up by then. 

“Anything else?” Link squeezed out through his fingers, and Rhett leaned down, still fucking up into his fist and against Link like he was made for it.    
  
Rhett leaned so far down that his nose almost touched Link’s own, and had Link’s hand not been in the way, they’d probably be kissing at that moment.   
  
Link’s whimper was loud enough to sound through the hand that was supposed to be muffling it, and it was followed by an even louder moan. Rhett was keeping impressively quiet during all of it, his moans and gasps quietened and broken-off. 

 

The dean didn’t seem to have noticed any of it, and was distracted by something, humming to herself. Rhett was still moving relentlessly, his sweet sighs making Link’s moans come louder and faster.   
_  
_ _ “I’ll call again to let you know about the survey! Have a good spring break, boys!” _   
  
The conversation was over and all concern for politeness fled out the window. Link didn’t even think to utter a goodbye before scrambling to hang up the phone. Once that was done, he moved his hands up to wrap them around Rhett’s back, muttering soft curses as Rhett just moved faster.    
  
“Fuck, Rhett,” Link breathed, thrusting his hips up to meet Rhett. “I’m gonna kill you,” Link said before moaning loudly, making Rhett laugh lightly.   
  
“You already have,” Rhett whispered, and moved both his hips and his hand a bit faster, in short, shallow stutters.    
  
“Gosh, Rhett,” Link mumbled dizzily,  _ “fuck,” _ he enunciated, tensing up as he came.   
  
Soon, Rhett was coming too, pressing his weight down against Link as his release coursed through him, and Link held him tightly. He spilled all over Link, gasping as he tried to catch his breath, moving his hand out from between their bodies but still slowly moving against Link before he stilled, and then rolled over onto his back next to Link.   
  
They stared at the ceiling, the loud sound of heavy breathing filling the room as they tried to come to. Link couldn’t believe what had just transpired, and how much more of it he wanted. For now, what he wanted most was to turn to his side and cuddle up to Rhett, but he’d need a bit more time to still his breathing before he attempted it.   
  
It was when Link was almost there that Rhett spoke.    
  
“You wanna get married one day?” Rhett asked, completely throwing Link off. 

 

_ To you?, _ Link thought to ask, just as a clever retort he could say to Rhett — not, like, an  _ actual _ answer to an  _ actual _ possibility. Not like Rhett’s question was any sort of proposal.

 

And, Gosh, Rhett proposing—   
  
“Yeah,” Link says.

 

“Yeah, well, one day you’ll have a wife, who knows, might even be Jill —”   
  
When Link snorted, it wasn’t anything against Jill. Just…  _ please. _

 

Rhett turned to face Link, face scrunched up. “Well, a lot of people meet their spouse in college!”   
  
Link nodded. “I guess,” he said, not in the mood to explain just why Jill and him wouldn’t be that quick to get married.   
  


“I wanna get married too, but before then I wanna... Fool around. Well, not fool around, but, like…”   
  
Link urged him to go on by raising his eyebrows.   
  
Rhett sighed. “You wanna make use of this relationship and — God, uh. What I’m saying this, I wanna do more stuff like this with you.”   
  
Link was quiet for a moment. “Like… Friends with benefits?” he asked.   
  
Rhett nodded. “Yeah, like, buddyfucking.”   
  
The word sent chills down Link’s spine. Of course it would probably all be platonic, but Link couldn’t resist either way.   
  
“Or you wanna wait for marriage to lose your virginity?” Rhett teased.

 

Rhett and Link were top class lovers to anyone who asked, anyone who didn’t know them as well as they knew each other — and they knew each other so well that there was no point in trying to manufacture stories in which they’d lost their virginities, which was something neither had done so far. Link reckoned that any girls they thought they’d meet later in life wouldn’t mind hearing that Rhett or Link were waiting for The One. Link always thought that being The One would take a girl’s mind off the fact that he was over eighteen and still a virgin.   
  
“Nah,” Link said with a laugh, and Rhett smiled. 

 

Link would usually maybe say yes but — sometimes you could find the one and not marry them. Especially if it would be illegal if you tried to.   
  
Rhett cleared his throat. “Yeah, so. Just saying, it’s something we could do.”   
  
“A hole is a hole…” Link teased, getting Rhett to grimace and stretch his arm across the bed to punch Link in the shoulder lightly.    
  
Link burst out laughing. “I’m joking, obviously!”    
  
Rhett ran his knuckles down Link’s arm slowly before letting his hand rest next to Link’s on the bed.   
  
“I’ll miss you,” Rhett said.

 

The smile Link cracked reached his eyes and made them a bit damp. “I’ll miss you too.”   
  
“Just wanna lay here forever,” Rhett said, closing his eyes. And maybe Link was about to find out that as well as eating a lot, sex made Rhett sleepy too, but he couldn’t allow it.   
  
Link giggled, “Thanks for reminding me that we can’t. C’mon, let’s try to get you to the airport.”   
  
Link jumped out of bed, very happy, because there was one thing he knew for certain —  _ Rhett had touched him, when he didn’t really need to.  _


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kinda telling of my family that holidays are busier for me than college. finally here with this one, sorry for the delay!

Rhett was pretty set on making Link miss him. Problem is, he didn’t know exactly how to go about it and be certain that it was working. As he pondered it, time was running out, and being in Link’s company only served to make Rhett realise that for Link, making Rhett miss him was something that Link would naturally be good at. Rhett didn’t know if Link had the same intentions as him, per se, because Link didn’t really need to try like Rhett — Link was pretty successful in getting Rhett to feel sad at the prospect of leaving just by being there, by being Link. Of course Rhett would miss him. But, again — not enough to make Rhett stay. Because maybe it was for the better that Rhett suffered without him for a while.    
Even if, truthfully, some separation in hopes of clearing his mind wasn’t the only thing Rhett was after. Even if he still selfishly hoped to use the distance between them to get Link’s heart to grow fonder.    
  
However, being oddly hopeful yet almost certain that that wouldn’t work, Rhett had a whole other array of problems — he’d settled way too easily into the way things had turned out in regards to their fake relationship, and didn’t see a way out of it. What started as him fearing that he’d lose Link to schoolwork or girls and using the first opportunity to bring them a little closer ended up unveiling many things to Rhett that he’d never known about himself before. He knew it wasn’t like this for Link, but Rhett ended up being closer to Link that he’d ever anticipated to. He’d never anticipated to fall in love. But it was so easy to live alongside Link like this, to admire him openly and talk about his days with him, to entwine his legs with Link’s under the table they sat down at in the airport café, that he couldn’t think to try and make himself stop.    
  
They’d arrived at the airport before all the other guys, naturally, so Rhett had suggested they have something to eat. Neither were really hungry, and airport food prices were abysmal, so they ended up sharing the one egg muffin and the cup of coffee. Neither really minded. At least, to Rhett, it didn’t look like Link minded.    
  
They’d shared something pretty intimate just a couple of hours before, so, Rhett figured that sharing a meal wouldn’t be a big deal. It did feel like a significantly sizeable deal in another way — Rhett realised that he could get used to sitting down for a relaxed meal after having sex with Link. Which — is that what they’d done? Rhett didn’t still fully know what it meant to have full-on sex in guy terms, or really, how one would go about losing one’s virginity. Maybe he could have asked Link what he thought about it. But not right away. Maybe someday. When he comes back from Alaska.    
Like, he would ask now, but maybe, he could first feel around and figure out if Link’s a virgin at all. Rhett’s pretty sure he is, ‘cause, Link would have told him if he had lost his virginity.   
...He would, right? But who knows, with all the recent events… Really, the only person Rhett wasn’t not sure in regards to Link having sex with her is Jill, because that was still so fresh that he hadn’t really had time to ask Link about it. But with the way Link was seemingly always at hers nowadays, Rhett couldn’t help but to be at least a little bit bothered by the thought. It was cool, like, if Link’s had sex already. Totally cool. 

 

Still kinda unpleasant to think about. Rhett shamelessly chalked it up to jealousy, and then decided to distract himself by speaking. Link was looking away, at all the different people milling about at the airport, and Rhett lightly kicked his leg under the table to get his attention.   
  
“Can’t believe they’re making you take a test on Easter Monday,” Rhett said sourly when Link turned. Link’s responding smile was slow to come, fond, if a bit smug-looking.   
  
“Easter Monday’s the Monday after Easter, buddyroll,” Link said, leaning in across the table. “Not this Monday.”   
  
“Oh,” Rhett said, desperately trying to find words to amend his blunder, because really, he _ knew  _ this. “Well, yeah. Good Monday, Holy Monday. Whatever.”   
  
Link laughed, and as sweet as it was to listen to, Rhett felt a bit uneasy because it sounded like Link was laughing at Rhett, which made him colour.    
  
“What?”    
  
“It’s Good Friday,” Link told him, leaning in a little more across the table, leaning his elbow on the table and his chin in that hand. “And Holy Thursday,” Link took on a tone like he was showing off by correcting Rhett, and Rhett found that what made him blush wasn’t unease. Usually Rhett might’ve minded Link being all smarty-pants, but as Link tilted his head and smirked like he was challenging Rhett, Rhett thought it was kind of… hot.    
“Monday’s just… Monday,” Link said, leaning back a little, and unthinkingly, Rhett leaned forward a little as if to keep the distance between their faces as small as it can be.    
  
“Sorry,” Rhett said, not having one ounce of will to try to prove to Link that he in fact, knew this. “Wasn’t thinkin’.”    
  
“Hm,” Link said with a small nod, still smiling. They looked at each other for a bit before Link spoke again. “You okay?” Link asked quietly, and Rhett nodded immediately. Rhett should have probably thought the question a bit too vague and complained about it, but again, he didn’t mind, didn’t think about it too hard. He just kept looking at Link’s face.   
  
“Just a little, um, distracted,” Rhett said, and if he chose that moment to look down at Link’s lips, it was only half deliberate.    
  
When Rhett looked back up, Link was still smiling, his eyes looking straight into Rhett’s own. Rhett looked right back, cracking a smile himself.    
  
Rhett didn’t know how long this would have gone on for had Link not turned his head to the side like he’d heard something important to his left. When Rhett followed his gaze, it landed right on the group he was to go to Alaska with. And while he knew that seeing them should excite him, it only made something deflate inside him.    
  
As Rhett focused on trying to perk up a little and not letting his smile drop, Link roused him from it with a gentle hand on his arm. When Rhett looked over at him, Link was already standing up.    
  
“We should go,” Link said softly, a sad smile gracing his lips. When Rhett nodded, Link dropped his hand from where it was touching Rhett and waited for him to stand up before they walked over to their friends, Rhett wheeling his suitcase in tow.    
  
Rhett and Link greeted them together, but each of them insisted on hugging Rhett — Mark, Ian, David and Trevor alike — before the rowdy group made its way down to the security check-ups.    
  
Rhett had been in the middle of the group, but upon noticing that Link wasn’t by his side, he turned around to find him. Spotting him at the back, Rhett smiled and slowed his steps a little so he could walk next to Link, who bumped his elbow and nodded toward the group in front of them.   
  
“Shouldn’t you be with the guys?” Link asked, raising one hand to scratch the back of his head. “I should probably start thinkin’ about goin’—”   
  
Rhett shook his head. “You crazy?” he asked, shaking his head. Just to prove his point of not wanting Link to go yet, he wrapped his arm around Link’s shoulders and pulled him in. Leaning down, he said, “G’nna get enough of these idiots in twenty minutes. Dunno how I’m gonna stand it without you,” Rhett said in a low voice, making Link laugh. The laugh must have grabbed Trevor’s attention, because he turned back to look at them, but then turned his head away quickly, as if embarrassed by the sight of Rhett and Link walking together so closely. Rhett couldn’t care less about it.    
  
“I’ll miss you too,” Link said, grinning, and it took all Rhett had in himself not to lean down and press a kiss to Link’s lips. 

 

“Take care and, if you need anything,” Rhett said, “Just ask Gregg.”   
  
Link snorted, shaking his head. “Pretty sure I’ll be better off askin’ Jill or Jess, or, well, anyone but him.”   
  
Rhett nodded, looking down at the floor. There was another problem that Link just reminded him off: leaving Link alone with Jill for a week. Rationally, Rhett knew that if Link was going to fuck her, he would have done it already or he would do it whether or not Rhett was there, but still, Rhett couldn’t say that the thought didn’t bother him.   
  
Link didn’t seem to notice Rhett’s distress and just followed his statement, “You’ll call, though, right?”   
  


Rhett nodded immediately, and just as they reached the line for the security check-ups, he dropped his arm from around Link’s shoulders and nodded vigorously to confirm it: “Promise.”

 

The line in front of them moved a little bit too fast for Rhett’s liking, and when Rhett stepped forward, following his travelling companions, he noticed that Link took a step back. Alarmed, Rhett turned around just in time to see Link give him a small smile and shrug.    
  
“Oh, right,” Rhett said, crossing the distance between them until he was right in front of Link. “So…”    
  
“So,” Link said shakily, breaking Rhett’s heart. Rhett stepped even closer, until his chest was almost up to Link’s own. He brought his hands up, and Link exhaled a short laugh, leaning in and letting Rhett hug him. Link’s arms wrapped tightly around Rhett’s middle, and Rhett pulled him in as close as he could in return. After a few long seconds, which Rhett wanted to prolong but feared might be embarrassing for Link, Rhett broke the hug, though not all the way — he couldn’t, with Link still clinging to him.   
  
Rhett smiled, but when Link looked up at him, the smile faltered. Rhett’s breath caught in his throat when he looked back at Link, trying to follow Link’s gaze as it roamed all over his face, unable to settle anywhere. 

 

Rhett gulped. “Link?” he barely uttered, before Link leaned up, and pressed his lips against Rhett’s own.   
  
Taken aback by the kiss, it took Rhett a moment to relax, to slowly respond by moving his lips and bringing his hands up to Link’s shoulders.   
  
He could hear the guys behind them hooting and hollering, shouts of:   
  
_ “Ohhhh!” _   
  
_ “Yeees, please!” _ _  
_ _  
_ _ “Get it, boizzz!” _ _  
_   
and a drawn-out, enthusiastic,  _ “woop-woop-woooot!” _ , most probably from Mark.

  
Rhett knew that the kiss is most probably just for show, but he leaned down into it nonetheless and let himself enjoy it. Link’s hands made their way down to the Rhett’s sides, where his fingers dug into Rhett’s shirt, making Rhett kiss Link more urgently.   
  
But then Link smiled against his lips and broke the kiss, just like that, leaving Rhett lightheaded. Cheeks beet-red, blue eyes shining bright, Link leaned his head into Rhett’s chest, hiding his face in embarrassment, his hands still holding onto Rhett’s sides. Overwhelmed with the sudden urge to protect Link’s shyness from the group behind them, Rhett pulled him in just a little closer and held him just a little tighter.    
“I’ll miss you,” Link muttered, reminding Rhett of the fact again, making butterflies fly about in Rhett’s stomach. Seems like Rhett had succeeded in making Link miss him when he leaves, at least a little.    
  
Rhett knew that his smile was a bit goofy, but he couldn’t have cared less. “Nah, you’ll get a deserved rest from me,” he whispered into Link’s hair.   
  
Link shook his head and looked up, eyes narrowed. “Why you making it sound like it’s possible for me to get tired of you?”   
  
Rhett shrugged, looking down at Link with a smile. He desperately wanted to kiss Link again, but thought it would be too much — the kiss they just shared was only for show, anyway.   
  
“I’ll miss you more,” Rhett mumbled then, and Link cracked a smile.   
  
Shaking his head, Link broke the hug and stepped away. “The guys are waitin’ on you, so i’m not playing that game, even if I want to,” he said, making Rhett smile even as Link backed away. “I don’t wanna have you lose at it a few hours before you have to go freeze your ass off in Alaska while I get to stay here, anyway.”   
  
Rhett smiled. “I’ll get ya something nice in Juneau.”   
  
Link mirrored his smile, making Rhett feel warm inside. “Just come back safe, alright?” Link asked.   
  
Rhett nodded, pressing his lips into a thin line. “Should go,” he finally croaked out.   
  
Link nodded, shooting a quick look over his shoulder to check for anything in his way before he looked back at Rhett and started walking backwards, raising a hand to wave good-bye.    
“Bye! Have fun!” Link said, and Rhett thought he could see that Link’s eyes were a little wet. Or maybe it was a trick of the eyes, maybe his vision was just obscured by of the tears pooling in his own eyes.    
  
Rhett wiped his eyes quickly and swallowed the rest of his tears.    
  
Dang.  _ Link’s really got him, hasn’t he?  _   
  
Link stood there, waving, until Rhett was through the security and down the hallway where he couldn’t see him anymore.    
  
_ Wouldn’t be too late to turn back, now, would it? _

  
But then Rhett thought of the cold and the snow and the fun that awaited him, rather than thinking about how what he feels for Link could never be reciprocated.    
  
He thought he’d rather spend some time far away from Link, than be close to him but not close enough.   
  
And boy was he wrong.   
  
The first day, Rhett could stand it. After the plane landed, it was a flurry of events that occupied him and made thinking about Link possible, but missing him not as much.   
It was in the evening, when they settled into the hostel, that he first thought of phoning Link, but abstained from it. Calling him on the first day might have seemed a little clingy.    
  


They decided not to go out on the first day, just get a good night’s sleep so that they could head down to Eaglecrest first thing in the morning for some good old snowboarding. Then they thought they’d go out the following afternoon after coming back to the hostel, but were too tired and cold to even think of it. As the other guys walked about, to and fro the communal kitchen and showers, Rhett let them both eat and warm up with a shower first, as he sat down in the lobby in his cold, damp clothes, dialling his and Link’s new room number over and over again. He’d repeated it in his head a myriad of times after writing it down, but was now unsure if that five that looked a bit like a three might have been a three, or something else. He called both versions of the phone number multiple times, and then stopped calling the ‘three’ variation because that one didn’t even ring. The ‘five’ one gave him at least a little bit of hope, but still, after a while, he was forced to face the fact that Link wasn’t picking up. It was just a little past six in Juneau, so it couldn’t have been too late back in Raleigh.    
  
It had only been two days, and Rhett knew this, but c’mon — you couldn’t blame him for wanting to hear his best friend’s voice. And what if something had happened to Link?   
  
Rhett didn’t let his thoughts wander in that direction. Instead, he busied himself with thinking of where Link could have gone on a Sunday night, and just as his thoughts briefly drifted onto Jill’s room, the answer presented itself to him.   
  
Gregg.   
  
Rhett silently thanked the Virgin Mary that he still knew that number by heart. He was dialling the number immediately, simultaneously going over the reasoning behind it — Link had agreed to help Gregg study for their imminent test so Link could be back in their old room — and the dream that when Rhett called, Gregg could be busy and tell Link to pick up.   
  
And just as that thought wisped out, someone picked up.   
  
_ “Hello?” _   
  
And it was not Link. 

 

“Hey, man, it’s Rhett.”   
  
_ “Oh-ho-hoo,” _ Gregg said as if he were pleased to hear from Rhett, but then the joy briefly turned to concern.  _ “Wait, why are you callin’? You okay? You guys get scammed at the hostel or somethin’—?” _ _  
_   
“No, no,” Rhett rushed to assure him, “Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to see how you were, and, uh, if Link was there.”   
  
_ “Ohhh. Well, I’m okay,” _ Gregg said slowly,  _ “Thinking of killing myself so I don’t have to study through the night. Might just end up going to sleep and wing it. Yeah, probably gonna go to sleep. Uh, Link… Link was here earlier, like three maybe? Fuck if I know. He was summarizing his knowledge out loud and I picked up on most of that summary, so I might not totally fail tomorrow because of him. But yeah, um, he left a while ago — why’d you ask?” _

 

Rhett nodded, more to himself than Gregg who he knew couldn’t see him. “Okay, nothing, um, I just wanted to talk to him and he’s not picking up.”   
_  
_ _ “Ah, I see how it is. First time our lovely couple is separated,” _ Rhett knew that Gregg was aware of what a fake couple they were, so the supportive teasing made him smile.    
  
“Yep,” Rhett said, sighing. “Man, I miss him,” he mumbled.   
_  
_ _ “Sure he misses ya too, buddy,” _ Gregg said,  _ “He’s probably fucking studying, you know how he is. I can get you the number to the library desk, might be your best bet…” _ _  
_ _  
_ Rhett chuckled, “Nah, thanks. I probably shouldn’t even be calling now. I’ll call in a few days or somethin’ to hear about how you guys did on your test.”   
  
He could hear Gregg snicker before saying, “So I expect I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”   
  
Rhett nodded, pursing his lips to contain his smile. “Only if I can’t reach Link again,” he said, playing into it.    
  
Gregg laughed at that, and as they were about to say their good-byes, Gregg asked if there was, perhaps, a phone number he could pass to Link, through which they could reach Rhett. Rhett was about to praise Gregg as a genius, when he realised that there really was no easy way. It’s not like they had a phone in their cheap room which had two triple bunk beds and a window. 

 

_ “Alright,” _ Gregg said finally,  _ “I guess I’ll just tell Link to sit by the phone. I mean, you can always do it the old fashioned way, write him a letter or something.” _ _  
_   
Rhett rolled his eyes and said a short thank you to Gregg before they said their actual good-byes, and he hung up.   
  


He was a little bit disappointed by this turn of events, but still happy that he got to hear from Gregg who would let Link know to pay attention to the phone a bit more. He didn’t want to keep Link in their room and tie him to the bed — well, not when Rhett couldn’t be in that bed, not so that Link could answer the phone, anyway. But he really wanted to hear from him, and hoped that there would be a time when he called and Link heard it. 

 

On his way up to the room, Rhett met Ian, who was clearly walking over from the showers. He walked next to Rhett, notifying Rhett that there was plenty of hot guys walking around naked in the communal showers _ (“ha ha”). (When Rhett had later gone, he’d found that it was chock-full of naked old guys.) _

 

The guys, for all they talked about partying, decided to stay in for the evening, drink beer and play card games for the night, vowing to go to David’s cousin’s dorm party at UAS the following evening.   
  
They did good on that vow. 

 

It was around midnight on Monday, or Tuesday morning — Rhett never really knew how that worked — when he found himself in a dorm room at the campus of the University of Alaska Southwest, drunk out of his mind, thinking about Link.

 

He’d been calling Link the entire day, taking into account the time difference and what Link might have been doing at any calculated time. Link should have answered at least nine of the twenty-two calls Rhett had made.    
  
Rhett was sad. But he wasn’t mad at Link — he was sure that Link had something more important to do. Still, Rhett wondered how he’d come to the point where there was never, not at any given moment, anything that was more important to him than Link.   
The only reason why he wasn’t out shouting Link’s name into the night sky was probably because Mark kept teasing him about doing it, like he could read his dang mind. Or maybe Rhett’d pathetically let slip to Mark earlier how much he wanted to shout about how much he loved Link; Rhett didn’t clearly remember. 

 

So he didn’t shout. But there was nothing that could stop him talking about Link. Gushing about him to Marla, a girl that had moved into their hostel room that morning and occupied the sixth bunk. A short, dark-skinned blonde (Rhett himself couldn’t get over how good that looked) that apparently every one of his friends wanted to get with, and so invited along to the party. She must have seen them as innocuous enough because she accepted the invitation with the smallest amount of persuasion. 

 

Just as he was explaining to Marla how Link was the most amazing guy in the world, Rhett realised he didn’t have a drink in hand. Truth be told, he couldn’t remember having a drink in a while. Like, minutes at least. But he still felt like talking about Link. Like he was drunk on Link.   
  
“Ohhhh,” he suddenly said, zoning out a little.   
  
Marla giggled. “What?” She too, was drunk, but the fun kind. She listened to him while swaying around and laughed a lot. She wasn’t whiny and nauseatingly infatuated like Rhett.    
  
“I just remembered how hot Link looks when he’s reading. Lately I just wanna get onto my knees under a desk and suck him off—” Rhett was stopped by Marla’s hand on his mouth. Or, well, not stopped but muffled. As she snorted and giddily told him to  _ “sshhhh”, _ he went on: “mfhfmm—” 

  
They were both startled by a voice to their right. It was Trevor, who, Rhett realised, might have been standing next to them for a while, and was the reason Marla was trying to shut him up. Because Trevor was not only looking at Rhett, he was looking at him real weird.

  
“So,” Trevor began, clearing his throat, “this thing with Link, this is like,  _ foreals?” _ _  
_ _  
_ Rhett furrowed his brow. “Yeah,” he said, trying for gruff, and stumbled a little, almost falling backwards. He was, fortunately, stopped by Marla’s hand on his arm.   
  
“Damn, man,” Trevor said, “I always kinda thought…” Rhett winced at the curse. He didn’t know why he seemed to be so susceptible to profanities while under the influence, or why he was so ready to suddenly fight for Link while under the influence. It’s not like Trevor wanted a fight, there was just this vibe that Rhett was getting, like...   
  
“Yeah?” Rhett challenged, and swayed a little again, so much so that Marla had to step in with a:   
  
“Ooooh-kay, how about you sit down?” she asked, pointing behind them where there was a couch. “G’on, and I’ll get you a drink, okay?”   
  
Rhett nodded and made his way to the couch without fighting her, sighing when he leaned back into the cushions. He quirked a drunken brow up at Trevor and expectantly gestured to the empty spot beside him, and if it was a bit sassy, it was due to the drinks Rhett had consumed.    
  
Trevor sat down on the couch with space for an entire person to sit between them.   
  
And then he asked, “He treatin’ you okay?”    
  
Rhett shook his head, turning sideways on the couch to face him. “What?”   
  
Trevor spluttered, “Link. Is he, uh—”   
  
Rhett grinned in disbelief. “Why, you here to defend my honour or somethin’?”   
  
Maybe it was the drink that Rhett had consumed or the drink that Trevor had consumed but Rhett could swear that he saw Trevor blush.    
  
“Nah, nah,” Trevor said quickly, turning his gaze away from Rhett’s, “Just curious.”   
  
Rhett smiled. “He’s the best—” he was fully ready to keep going when he noticed Mark, and then Trevor noticed him too — but by then Mark was already sitting on Trevor’s lap, straddling him.    
  
“What are you—” Trevor barely had any time to utter before mark was leaning in to kiss him straight on the lips.    
  
When he pulled back, Trevor was gaping at him, and Rhett thought his face must have looked pretty similar.    
  
“Didn’t you just say you were curious?” Mark asked with a shit-eating grin, tilting his head to the side. Trevor just closed his mouth, definitely blushing now. Before he could get anything out, Mark was climbing off him to sit in between him and Rhett and speaking:   
  
“Don’t be gettin’ any ideas, but I kinda know. We all kinda know. And we still love ya.”   
  
Well, Mark was lying, ‘cause — Rhett hadn’t known. But it dawned him in that moment.   
  


He didn’t care about it as much as he may have before, though. What he focused on now was leaning back and enjoying the way his head spun as he looked at the ceiling. Looking at the ceiling and nothing else, it was easy to block out the sounds and smells around him and imagine that he was in their bedroom, lying on the bed with Link beside him.

  
“Hey, man?” Mark’s voice roused him, but when Rhett turned his head to the side lazily, he realised that Mark was not talking to him, but to Trevor: “You wanna kiss some more?” Mark asked, “Just, like, for the hell of it.”

 

Trevor shook his head and moved it as if ducking Mark’s lips, before he stood up off the couch, made an excuse to go get a drink, and left Mark and Rhett alone. Well, alone in that corner of the room.   
Rhett sighed, and well aware that no one asked, said:   
  
“Man. I thought I could make it without Link but I miss him like crazy. And he’s not answering the phone, which means i might’a taken down the wrong number. God I’m an idiot… ”   
  
“Hm,” Mark said, nodding, and it seemed that in the time Rhett took to blink, Mark had acquired a cigarette, and was now lighting it.

  
“Do it the old fashioned way. Send him a letter,” Mark said before taking a drag from the cigarette.   
  
Rhett scoffed, turning his gaze back up to the ceiling. “Gregg said the same thing. Y’all are crazy.”   
  
“It’s not that crazy,” Mark countered, making Rhett look over at him. “Here, let me — hey, Lana!” this got the attention of a tall, burly girl, who looked over at Mark and quirked a brow. Seeing the familiar blue eyes and crooked nose on Lana’s face, Rhett though she might be David’s cousin, the cousin — who Rhett felt like he should have met, being her guest here and all. Anyways, while he was busy thinking this over, Mark had arranged for Lana to get him a pen and paper, and then promptly showed them into Rhett’s hands.    
  
Rhett sat up straighter, accepting the proffered items confusedly. Looking up, he could see Marla across the room, engaged in a heated discussion with Ian, and oh  — there it was, now they were kissing.    
  
Mark snapped his fingers in front of Rhett’s face, making Rhett snap out of it.   
  
“My hands are so… I’ll do it tomorrow,” Rhett whined. “Can’t send it now, anyway.”   
  
“Do you want Link now or tomorrow?” Mark asked, too amused by all of this.   
  
Rhett narrowed his eyes. “Now I guess…” he said huffily. Mark took the pen and paper back from his hands.   
  
“Here — I’ll write. You just tell me what to write.”   
  
“Okay,” Rhett agreed, his mouth stretching into a happy, drunken smile. This could be fun, he thought. “I don’t know what to write,” he whined again, quietly — more to himself.    
  
“Dear Link,” Mark enunciated. Rhett didn’t know why Mark was so eager to get him to do this, but he didn’t think it was a bad idea. And there was no better person to tell about how great Link was than Link himself.   
  
“Yeah, that,” Rhett confirmed, smacking his lips together a few times before talking, “It’s been seven hours and two days—”   
  
“Since you took your love away,” Mark mumbled around his cigarette, making Rhett laugh.    
  
“Oh,” Rhett said, turning toward Mark a little, more and more invested in this. “You can tell him that nothing compares to him.”   
  
“Starting off strong, are we?”    
  
Rhett looked down into his lap, only slightly embarrassed, the tune to “Nothing Compares 2 U” stuck in his head. “I mean, it’s kinda like the song. It’s a lot of fun being here with you guys, but like, I can’t stop thinking about Link. And I don’t wanna. It’s never been like this. Usually when I like someone and I take at least a minute of my free time to think about them I feel stupid as heck. But Link is just… He’s so beautiful, man. Like, you’re straight, and even you can probably see it. Like, his eyes, and his face. He’s kinda tall but he feels so small, and if I went like this,” Rhett dazedly put both of his index fingers and thumbs in the shape of an ‘u’ and then brought his hands together, creating an oval gap, “I could probably fit his waist in there." And Rhett thought about holding Link by the waist as he slid into him, Link all warm and wet and tight… Rhett kept it to himself, but went on, “And his freakin’ hands, and man. You should see his dick.”    
Alright, maybe he didn’t keep everything to himself.   
  
“Whoa, whoa,” Mark said, laughing, making Rhett colour. “Maybe I’ll leave seeing his dick to you,” Mark said with a smirk.   
  
Rhett grinned. “His ass, too.”   
  
“All yours,” Mark said easily, making Rhett laugh.   
  
“Gosh. I know our thing is like, kiss for when people are looking and, it’s still so good kissing him like that, but I wanna kiss him like no one’s looking.” Rhett only regretted saying that slightly once it was out of his mouth. He thought it might have revealed a little too much about the nature of their relationship, but Mark didn’t seem to pick up on it.   
  
Nodding approvingly, Mark just said: “Kinda weird. But sounds kinky — I like it, I like it...”   
  
Rhett smiled. “Man, he’s just. Dang. The way he talks and how smart and careful he is. Not at all like me. Not like anyone, and he’s so freakin’, like, the things he says about me, I could live on just those.”   
  
“Wow,” Mark said, extinguishing his cigarette in his red solo cup, “Really doesn’t take a lot to get you goin’.”   
  
Rhett sighed, the alcohol making him more apologetic than he usually might have been. “I love him, man. I freakin’ love Link Neal. More than anything in the wor—”   
  
“Alright, alright,” Mark said, chucking. “But can you repeat all of that now? And speak slowly, ‘cause I didn’t get it.”   
  
Rhett furrowed his brow in confusion for a moment, thinking over how the hell Mark hadn’t gotten that, because it was really quite simple. But then he realised what Mark meant — he hadn’t managed to get it  _ down. On paper. _

  
Rhett, still unsure why Mark was helping him do this, did his best to recount all that he had previously stated. Judging by Mark’s pleased look at the end of it, he’d done it well. Mark said he’d keep the letter safe for Rhett until morning, and it was lucky that Rhett agreed — because a few shots of vodka later, Rhett passed out on the couch.

 

—   
  
Rhett woke up in his bed (for the week) the following morning, his head pounding, though he didn’t know with what, since it felt empty.   
  
Ian and Marla were also awake, and were kissing in Ian’s bed, which was just across the room from Rhett’s. 

 

It took Rhett a few moments to come to, and when he threw the covers off himself to get ready to get up and get some water for his parched throat, he saw that Mark was also up, sitting on the windowsill and smoking.   
  
Rhett raised himself up on his elbows and narrowed his eyes at him.   
  
“Hey,” Mark said, smiling as if he was reigning in laughter, “Good morning.”   
  
Rhett recognised the expression and it made him feel nauseated, more so than he already was. “What did I do…?” he asked carefully. It could also be that something had been done to him while he was drunk, but he was sure that something had transpired.   
  
Mark laughed and stubbed out his cigarette on the window ledge outside before throwing it out. “Nothin’. I mean, nothin’ bad. You were just kinda… mouthy.”   
  
“Mouthy with words, right?” Rhett asked, but he was certain that he didn’t get mouthy in any other way that might count as cheating, or fake-cheating, on his fake boyfriend.   
  
“Yeah, nah, you just went on and on about Link…”   
  
Rhett groaned. “Nice. I seriously can’t remember half the freaking night. I remember us taking the bus there and almost getting kicked off when they saw David drinking. I remember… Did they play Prince, or something?”   
  
Mark laughed. “Yeah, you could say that. D’you remember the couch?”   
  
Rhett nodded slowly, and Mark’s eyes widened. “Yeah, I,” Rhett began, squeezing his eyes almost shut as if to help himself recall it, “Did you and me keep score for Scrabble or something? I swear I can remember you holding a piece of paper.” After saying this, Rhett dropped his head back down onto the pillow, as his previous night threatened to revisit him backwards, up his throat.    
  
“Yeah, uh. So if Link could hear the lovey-dovey crap you said about him,” Mark suddenly said, making Rhett crane his head a little on the pillow to see at least a bit of Mark. “Would you want him to?”   
  
Rhett didn’t have strength to scoff, but he thought that it was pretty audible in his voice anyway, when he spoke: “You serious? He’d leave me.”   
  
“He wouldn’t,” Mark insisted, but it also sounded almost like a question.   
  
“Yeah, maybe he wouldn’t… I just. I dunno, man.”   
  
“Right,” Mark confirmed, and Rhett could see him grinning. “I gotta go now,” Mark said grabbing his jacket from where he kept it on one of their suitcases.    
  
“Where are you—” before Rhett’s sore mouth could get the question out, Mark was already out of the room.    
  
Rhett groaned, turning his head towards the couple in the bed opposite his.    
  
“Marla?” Rhett asked, gulping as if to dampen his scratchy throat a little.    
  
“Hm?” she quipped, pausing in booping Ian’s nose to look at Rhett.   
  
“Where is Mark going?”    
  
“Oh,” she said, “I don’t know. Think he said something about a post office, he’s gotta send something.”   
  
Probably some greeting cards or something, Rhett thought, before he began to force himself to sit up in bed, so that he could stand up and possibly even walk to the nearest sink, where he could drink some water. 

 

Once he willed himself to get up, Rhett walked over to the window Mark had left open and gazed out at the street, the tall houses with sidings of all colours looking dull in the cloudy late morning. Rhett leaned against the windowsill and sighed, enjoying the freshness of the chilly air outside, thinking how Link should be awake by now too, and how after he got something to drink, he could try the phone downstairs.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all so much for the overwhelming support i still can’t believe it… thank u so much <3
> 
> and also i owe my life
> 
> to [Katie](http://allthedevilishthingswedo.tumblr.com/post/155449344398/im-so-in-love-with-this-rhink-fic-a-perfect) who did the most amazing art for this fic which is now the cover of it! go give this lil blog a folowwww for meee.

Link was smitten with Rhett beyond repair, so when he walked into Jill’s room and found her lounging on her bed with Jess, both of them in their underwear, he didn’t think twice before turning back around and exiting the room.   
  
Taking a shaky breath to calm his racing heart, Link waited by the door, staring at it. The situation reminded him of a time when he’d caught Rhett in a compromising position in their own room, though the feelings tied to that situation were very different to this.   
  
Feeling like he’d just inadvertently cheated on Rhett, though all he saw was bare shoulders and bra straps that dipped down under the blanket which obscured his view from the rest of Jill and Jess, Link took a moment to think about how to proceed.   
  
It was then that Jess called him back into the room, telling him not to be an idiot and  _ just get in _ when he opened the door to peek in.   
  


Jess rolled her eyes, extending her hand from under the blanket to beckon him into the room.     
“Am I… interrupting?” Link asked, throat dry. He closed the door swiftly and huddled against it, looking at Jess warily. He’d been offered a sort of threesome by Jess before — one he gladly took part of, because of a certain gentleman that was also part of it — but this time, the prospect itself scared him. Though thinking about cheating on Rhett was mortifying in itself, Link also felt like his Rhett-loving-self really shouldn’t embarrass himself by trying to satisfy neither Jill and Jess, nor himself when it came to the two of them.   
  
“No,” Jess said, leaning her head back against the wall and pulling the blanket up a little. “We just did our laundry.”   
  
Link crossed the room so he could sit on the chair that faced the bed, frowning all the while. “Do you not have anything to wear?” he asked, making Jess snort out a laugh.    
  
Jill smiled. “No,” she said patiently, “We have plenty of freshly clean clothes…” When she said it, Link realised that yes — Jess had just said that they’d done their laundry, and now that he was closer he noticed a pile of laundry between them. Before he could ask why they were half naked, though, Jess started to explain it.   
  
“There’s new driers in the launderette. Though they’re more like ovens,” Jess said, and Jill nodded in agreement. “Feel this,” Jess said, kicking up a corner of the blanket toward Link, “It’s still warm. Came out piping hot, dude.”   
  


Link looked at Jill as Jess spoke, and Jill had this look on her face like she felt a little guilty for sitting there half-naked with her friend, but clearly she hadn’t felt guilty enough to have put a stop to anything they had so far done. She was also oddly quiet during all of this, and looked a bit tired, though Link didn’t know what to chalk that up to.   
  
In turn, Link felt guilty for showing up. Who knows what could have gone down.    
  
Link took the corner of the blanket in his fingers, rubbing them together as he felt the warmth of the soft blanket. “Huh…” he began, “So you two just… um…”   
  
“It’s nicer on bare skin,” Jess elaborated. “I was gonna take my bra off too had you not come in.”   
  
Link was surprised by that statement, but not as surprised as Jill looked. Perhaps Jess hadn’t informed her of that yet. And yes, Link definitely regretted not giving them some more alone time before he came over. 

 

Then, Jill coughed, and Jess sat up a little straighter, turning to her so she could put a palm on her forehead. The blanket slipped down a little, revealing Jess’ ample cleavage, and Link immediately turned away. He could not get why these girls weren’t at all shy around him, like, for all they knew he could have been very attracted to them.    
  
Or, well, they probably knew better than Link, actually, and were certain that he wasn’t.   
  
Jess clicked her tongue disapprovingly, snapping Link out of his thoughts though the sound wasn’t directed at him. Link still kept looking out the window.    
  
“You’re burning up,” he could hear Jess say to Jill. Hesitation in her voice, Jess went on: “Maybe you should put some clothes on. Aren’t you cold?”   
  
There was shuffling, then, and when Link chanced a glance back at them, Jill had scooted closer to Jill and the blanket was back up, up to their necks. Jill closed her eyes and leaned her head against Jess’ shoulder. “No,” she mumbled simply, making Jess smile. Jess looked over at Link and shared an entertained, albeit shy-looking, look with him.    
  
“D’you take your cough syrup?” Jess turned to Jill and mumbled, grinning. 

 

“Yes,” Jill said faintly.   
  
“I can tell,” Jess breathed, almost making Link laugh. But then Jill spoke again, and Link felt a little bad.   
  
“You two should go, somewhere,” she whispered, “Or you’ll catch my disease.”   
_  
_ _ “Disease,” _ Jess scoffed, “It’s a cold, no need to make it sound so serious. And anyway,” she said, leaning in toward Jill, “If I go, who’s gonna take care of you? And Link said he had something to tell us, so…” here she looked at Link, just in time to miss how Jill opened her eyes to beam up at her.    
  
“Yeah, uh, “Link said, feeling like it was his turn to speak. “I thought about what y’all said the other day, the signs and all.”   
  
“Oh?” Jill asked.   
  
“Yeah, um,” Link suddenly felt as bashful as he did excited to tell them about the conclusion he’d come to. “I’m not sure if he likes me in that way. But I know that he likes me, at least enough not to completely abandon me. Hopefully.”   
  
“Of course he does,” Jill whispered, snuggling up to Jess. 

  
“Yeah, so…” Link said, exhaling shakily. “I’m gonna tell him. I  _ got _ to. I wanted to come here and ask y’all how to do it.”

 

Jess looked at him expectantly while Jill looked like she was thinking something over, or maybe she had just zoned out.   
_  
_ _ “Rhett, bruh, I’m in love with you—” _ Jess said, dumbing her voice down and lowering its pitch.   
  
Link laughed. “I do not sound like that.”   
  
“True,” Jess smiled, shrugging the shoulder that wasn’t busy being a resting place for Jill’s head. “Your voice is way more high-pitched.”   
  
Link rolled his eyes, looking down and muttering to his chin, “I don’t call Rhett  _ bruh.” _

  
“Oh yeah,” Jess said, as if remembering something interesting, “sorry about that. Jill told me you call him your beau, actually.”

 

“Spelled bee-oh, by the way,” Link said, matter-o-factly.   
  
Jess seemed confused as to what Link had just said and how it mattered at all. “What?”   
  
“Not bee-ee-aye-you. This is a thing people call each other back in Buies Creek. It’s like, a friendly thing — it’s spelled B-O,” Link enunciated, “Like body odour.”   
  
Jill looked like she was gonna crack up for a moment, but then bared her teeth in a deliberately uncomfortable smile. Looking Link up and down pointedly and waving her hand in front of her nose, she said, “Well, I wasn’t gonna say anything…”   
  
The way Jill snorted at that before laughing loudly had Link scrunching his face up in a way that one’s face scrunches up when they hear something that makes them realise that the two people in front of them are peculiarly perfect for each other.   
  
“Ugh,” Jill moaned in pain, “My lips are so chapped. Link, could you get me my water bottle?”   
  
When Link passed her the bottle, she thanked him and finally said what’s been on her mind: “You’ve probably thought of this already, but how about you like, decorate the room and surprise him when he comes back.”   
  
“Oooh yes,” Jess agreed, “Like, rose petals and other crap.”   
  
Link nodded. “I have thought about it,” he admitted with a small smile. “It would be like a party to welcome him home, but just the two of us.”   
  
“Awh,” Jill muttered, making Link feel really shy all of a sudden.   
  
But he went on, “I thought we could like, have dinner and talk about everythin’… I’d make it real nice, maybe buy some candles or somethin’. Maybe just one candle. Don’t wanna scare him off,” Link said, chuckling. “So, yeah. There’s also something I’ve wanted to get him for the longest time, and I saved up some money ‘cause I didn’t really go out much this semester, so I could, I just gotta act fast.”   
  
“Sounds like you don’t really need our help,” Jess said fondly, smiling wide.   
  
And she was right, maybe he didn’t. But they certainly helped — Jess recalled that one of the things Link was after, Jill’s dad was looking to sell. And with Jill’s dad coming up to bring her a box of Easter-related goodies very soon, it could easily be arranged that he brought along something he’d been eager to get rid of since the late eighties, and something Link happily would break the bank for.

 

So Link came back to his and Rhett’s room very satisfied. Once there, that dissipated a little, when he looked around the room. With a sigh, he went about tidying up his desk and stacking his books by order of importance, picking up the few he needed to get to quickly to put them into his bag.    
  
It was impossible to distract himself. The first day, he almost felt like he could, what with helping Gregg study and studying a little himself. A pointless desire to change his outward appearance before Rhett came back overcame him on that first day — that evening he was busy running his hand through his hair to get it to sit in about five different ways atop his head before giving up, and doing nine push-ups before doing the same as with the hair.   
  
The next day, after taking his test, he opted to linger around some of his more studious classmates and discuss the possible outcomes of it with them. When he came home, he was faced with the slightly daunting prospect of having to return the tape to the video rental store. But it had to be done.

The guy at the store, knowing this was his (and undoubtedly) Rhett’s first borrow of the sort, said he could recommend some more good ones if they wanted to take things further.    
  
Shaking his head, which was beet red, Link said that that wouldn’t be necessary.    
  
He thanked the guy and didn’t feel the need to elaborate further, that if there was anything he was going to jack off to, it was the memory of Rhett sitting on top of him.

 

On Tuesday, Link was starting to miss him, so he took his stuff to the library for most of the day.    
  
On Wednesday he felt quite the same but decided to stay in his room and power through it. With nothing much to do, having jacked himself off every morning since Rhett left and having eaten and snacked about fifty times just that day, Link sprawled out on the bed and napped sporadically. Then he took a long bath, then he watched some TV, until he collapsed again.

  
And on this day, which was a Thursday, as every day since Rhett was gone, Link had no wish to linger in the empty room after he came back from Jill’s. Having finished with the all aforementioned tidying, he zipped his bag up and slung it over his shoulder. He was ready to make his way down to the library, when the phone rang.   
  
It was not one of the times that he anticipated Rhett to call. Link had sat in the room lest the phone ring in the mornings and evenings, and now, just after midday, Link was surprised to hear it ring. But the shock of the phone ringing wasn’t what made his heart beat so fast. Dropping the bag to the floor, Link practically leapt across the bed and picked up, already smiling from ear to ear.

 

“Hello?” he asked breathlessly.

 

_ “Hey?”  _   
  
“... Who is this?” Link asked. Taken aback by who the person was  _ not, _ Link hadn’t fully registered who the person was.   
_  
_ _ “It’s Gregg.” _   
  
“Oh. Hey.”   
_  
_ _ “…” _ _  
_ _  
_ “Why are you calling?”   
  
_ “Oh, yeah, fuck — just wanted to check if your phone works.” _ _  
_   
“... Why?”   
  
_ “No reason. Say, has it been, like, ringing lately?” _ _  
_   
“No, not really.”   
  
_ “Seriously?” _   
  
“Yeah, why?”   
  
_ “Rhett’s been callin’ ya for ages, doofus.” _ _  
_   
“Oh,” Link said, heartbeat picking up again. “Oh, but — he… I’ve been waiting for that, but yeah, um, no?”   
  
It seemed impossible that Link had missed every one of Rhett’s calls, but the truth was — and it’s not like Link had forgotten to wait for the call, not at all — that Link was admittedly out a lot of the time, feeling very lonely in the room. The bed still smelled of Rhett, his paraphernalia was scattered all over the place, his underwear drawer still half full — there was something to remind him of Rhett anywhere he looked. But Link just couldn’t shake off the feeling that the room, especially the bed, felt really cold without Rhett around.   
_  
_ _ “He probably got the wrong number.” _   
  
“No, that doesn’t sound like Rhett,” Link said, racking his brain for another reason, praying to God that he hadn’t stupidly missed his chance to talk to Rhett by being an impatient wuss who couldn’t stick around in their room. “Maybe this is like one of those hotel phones. Maybe you can’t call this phone from outside campus.”

  
With all the things they got with the room, it was pretty self-sufficient. So maybe the need to communicate with the world outside of college wasn’t thought necessary. Or the plug on telemarketers being able to contact them was pulled — something Link couldn’t say he missed.    
  
Though Link did regularly receive calls from telemarketers as well as call his mother from the phone downstairs, so there was that.

 

“He shoulda taken the number from downstairs,” Link groaned into the phone.   
  
_ “What’s done is done,” _ Gregg said wisely, sounding impatient to wrap this up and move onto the next thing,  _ “You should come over.” _ _  
_   
“You need help studying for Math?”   
  
_ “Fuck _ no,” Gregg said after an incredulous pause, sounding almost concerned for Link.  _ “That’s in like a month. Neal… What’s wrong with you?” _

 

Link actually felt a little embarrassed, face heating up in spite of himself. “I care about my education!”   
  
All Gregg offered in reply to that was a scoff.   
  
_ “Anyway, get over here,” _ Gregg said,  _ “I have no fuckin’ idea why this is in my room and not yours, but Rhett seems to be messin’ up a lot lately, so—” _ _  
_   
“What?” Link asked, his throat dry. “Whaddaya mean, Rhett—”   
_  
_ _ “Oh — he sent you something.” _   
  
Link didn’t mean to sputter out the quickest  _ “see ya!” _ he’d ever said, but he did. And then he picked up his keys and ran to Gregg’s like his life depended on it.

 

When he came to Gregg’s room, he could see him wiping down the inside of the fridge with an old mop. He was almost ready to commend him for cleaning, but then the realisation of what Gregg was cleaning the fridge with settled in.   
  
“You know we used that mop to clean up Mark’s vomit from the side of the toilet a few months ago?”   
  
Gregg looked at Link and then the grey mop in his hand, and shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s okay.”   
  
“How is it okay?” Link asked, almost raising his voice.   
  
Gregg looked at him much like he would look at the biggest idiot in the world. “Anything that cleans is clean.”   
  
Link was about ready to fight him on it, when Gregg  _ very  _ effectively shut him up with:

 

“It’s on your bed.”   
  
It made Link look over in that direction, made his heart skip a beat. Link wasn’t sure what he was hoping for — a greeting card, a small packet of some Alaskan food Rhett thought Link urgently needed to try, some small trinket like a snowglobe — but he didn’t dare hope for what he most wanted, and what he now saw in front of himself.    
  
It was the tiniest, cutest envelope, inside which there could still be a greeting card concealed, but Link had a strong feeling that it wasn’t one. Link rushed toward the bed and picked the envelope up. As he sat on the bed, he tore into it, and revealed that it was exactly what he most wanted — a letter from Rhett.    
  
Link read over the lines so quickly that he couldn’t even register them, holding his breath. When he took the time to comb through it, his eyes watering only a little, he could barely hear Gregg approach him and ask: “What does it say?”   
  
_ Dear Link,  _ _  
_ _  
_ _ Why are you not answering my calls? Not to be dramatic or nothin’ but… I yearn to hear from you. Alaska is great and it’s fun here but… it’s kinda whatever since you’re not here. I miss being with you and seeing you. Seeing you is... balmy. Man, you look good. Like, so good. With your eyes and your hair and legs and ass. And your hands too. (And you should see your dick!) _ _  
_ _ But hearing you is great too. I’m pretty much there for anything, as long as it’s you. Speaking of being there with you — being with you makes my heart feel full. I love and miss you a lot.  _

 

_ Wish you were here. _ _  
_ _  
_ _ Love, yours, always, _ _  
  
_

_ Rhett _

 

_ P.S. I know I already kissed you like everyone was looking, but I want to kiss you like no one is.  _

 

Link saw past the shaky, blocky handwriting, and the ash-stained paper, and brought the paper close to his chest. Smiling so hard his eyes were threatening to overflow, he shook his head, not really giving Gregg an answer.    
  
“Ooohkay,” Gregg said, grinning wide.   
  
It’s not like Link was going to read it out to him, but he laughed and gave him something. “It’s really… sweet.”   
  


“I’m glad,” Gregg said, shaking his head a little.   
  
Link looked back down at the letter. It was clearly haphazardly crafted, but Link loved it all the more for that. It meant that the things Rhett had wrote were less likely to be a fancy fabrication, and more likely to be his honest thoughts that he wanted to get down on paper. And that last line… Well, it was safe to say that Link couldn’t wait for Rhett to get back.   
  
Link read it again, and then, skipping every other line, he read it again.   
  
“Do you think I could send him a letter back?” Link asked outloud, more for himself because he gave the answer to it too, “No, probably not…” There were several things to factor in — the always seemingly unclear address to the hostel, there not being enough time…

 

“I don’t think so,” Gregg said honestly, “You’ll see him in like two days, though.”   
  
Link nodded. Unable to keep it to himself, he said, “He’s so… Listen to this:  _  I’m pretty much there for anything, as long as it’s you. Speaking of being there with you — being with you makes my heart feel full.” _   
  
“Pretty good for a fake boyfriend,” Gregg commented, grinning.

 

“Wait,” Link was ready to reread the letter seven hundred times and maybe even do it out loud, but first he had to ask. “Wait, fake?”   
  
There was a long pause, and then Gregg grimaced, trying to smile through it. “Uhh, what?”   
  
Another pause.    
  
Gregg sighed, finally launching into an explanation. “Rhett told me. Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna tell anyone!” Gregg reassured him, before turning away and muttering a  _ “stupid…” _ almost too faint for Link to hear.   
  
So Rhett had told him. Link understood, of course he did. Rhett couldn’t have had one of his closest friends actually believing that he was really gay. Link would have done the s— wait, no. Thinking that didn’t even make sense, Link decided, because he could’ve done it, and hadn’t. And even if he understood Rhett’s reasoning behind it, it was time to admit to himself that he was a little hurt by it.    
  
But this letter… It just made things more confusing. Maybe something had changed within Rhett, just as something had changed within himself. As Link looked back down at the letter, rereading it, he didn’t notice Gregg pacing in front of him until he was halfway through his second, casual re-read.   
  
When Link looked up at him, Gregg bared his teeth in another apologetic smile/grimace.

  
Gregg gulped, and then said: “So I slipped out that I know it’s not real and now we are past that…?” he narrowed his eyes, and Link didn’t really give him a reply before Gregg went on. “Great, so, I gotta ask. Do you like like Rhett? Like,  _ foreals?”  _   
  
Link’s breath caught in his throat, and his panicked mind immediately went back to how Gregg scolded himself when he’d let the fact that he knew about the insincerity of their relationship slip. It seemed like maybe, Rhett had told Gregg that the relationship was fake, but also, that maybe he thought Link had actual feelings for him, so he didn’t tell Link anything about it and told Gregg to keep it from Link too. Which, Link did have feelings for him, but with the way Rhett told Gregg about all of it behind his back, Link felt a little condescending, like he was the butt of some joke, and it made his body go cold with a dreadful sort of fear.   
  
“Why?” Link stammered out, and it was going to be the only thing he said. But he couldn’t hold out not speaking, “Did Rhett tell you something? Does he think I do?”   
  
Gregg raised his hands up as if surrendering. “I don’t know! Wouldn’t be the end of the world if you…”   
  
Link shook his head, interrupting him with a clear and harsh, “We’re just friends. Best friends, but just that.”   
  
“Okay,” Gregg said, nodding.    
  
Link didn’t know what to do. Gregg didn’t look malicious in asking him any of this, in fact, he looked disappointed when Link said that all Rhett was to him was a best friend. Along with the letter he held in his hands, it helped pacify Link a little.    
  
And speaking of the letter — Link turned it in his hands, folding it up and then opening it again, focusing on certain words (like  _ miss, love, dick) _ and feeling himself blush.   
  
When he’d put himself back into a good mood and looked up, Gregg was gone.   
  
Things were confusing, sure, but Link had to believe in Rhett, at least a little.   
  
“Gregg!” Link called out, a smile in his voice.   
  
“Taking a duuuump,” Gregg shouted back from behind the closed bathroom door.   
  
Link didn’t really mind. “Gonna stay over!” he yelled at the bathroom door. Because Rhett could still call, and the only place where Link had a chance of answering a call of his was this, their old room. And even if he didn’t, Link realised that there was no use in worrying until Rhett came back, and Link could see if Rhett meant what he’d said in the letter.   
  
Hopelessly, Link had a feeling like he did. He traced the words on paper with his fingers, smiling like crazy.   
  
On Gregg’s end, there was a pause, and then the sound of the toilet flushing. Link tried not to focus on how he hadn’t heard any sounds from the sink, and how Gregg walked out immediately. Even Link himself was guilty of not washing his hands sometimes, so he really couldn’t judge.   
  
“Can I go get the PlayStation?” Gregg asked.    
  
“Knock yourself out,” Link said, raising his keys up to warn Gregg that he was about to throw them to him. “Could you grab my toothbrush?” Link asked, and Gregg nodded before opening the door.

  
When Gregg walked out of the room, Link decided he could sacrifice five minutes of the phone being unoccupied to ring Jill. And yeah, basically gush to her about the letter.   
  
When he called, Jess picked up.   
_  
_ _ “Hello,”  _ she said, the sound of the telephone sounding a bit grainy.   
  
“Hey, it’s me. Is Jill there?” he asked, because if it was possible, he’d like them both to be present.    
  
_ “Hey, you. Uhh, she’s in the bathroom,” _ Jess said,  _ “Vomiting her heart out, basically.” _ _  
_   
Jess coughed, and Link realised that it wasn’t the telephone that made her sound a bit hoarse, it was probably the fact that she had a sore throat.   
  
“Oh, Gosh,” he said, “Are you guys okay? Do you need anything?”    
  
Jess chuckled and said,  _ “Just some sleep. We’re hoping this will go away soon since Jill’s dad is coming tomorrow.” _ _  
_   
Link got very excited in a split-second. “Is he bringing—?”   
  
_ “Yep!” _ Jess said, giggling,  _ “And get this, he won’t accept any money for it.” _ _  
_   
“What?” Link asked, fully ready to argue against such a ridiculous statement.    
  
_ “If you want to fight with someone on that,” _ Jess said quickly, as if reading his mind,  _ “you can talk to Jill tomorrow.”  _   
  
Link gulped and nodded, still feeling almost indignant at the thought of receiving something so valuable for free.   
  
As if she knew he needed some more convincing that this was the right decision, Jess went on,  _ “Link, her dad has wanted to get rid of it for like 10 years. Really, you’re doing him a favour.” _ _  
_   
Despite himself, Link grinned a little. “Okay,” he said softly.   
  
He could hear the smile in Jess’ voice when she spoke.  _ “Only two days left. You excited?” _ _  
_   
Link mirrored the smile. “One day if you don’t count today or Saturday, since they arrive then, at like three on Saturday…”   
  
Jess laughed,  _ “I take that as a yes,” _ she teased.  _ “But are you ready?” _   
  
Link shook his head, “Gosh, not at all. I still have to figure out where to get some fancy food, and if I should get the candles or like, a welcome home banner?”   
  
_ “No banner,” _ Jess managed before a long coughing fit.  _ “You’re trying to bone him, or get him to bone you… and not, I don’t know—” _   
  
“Okay, okay” Link nodded and decided to shut his excited mouth on that topic and let Jess go to sleep. By way of parting, he said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”   
  
_ “See ya!” _   
  
After he hung up, he toed his shoes off and stripped down to just his shirt, laying on his bed which fortunately still had his old covers on it.    
  
When Gregg came back, Link put the letter under his pillow and got up to help Gregg connect the PlayStation.    
  
About fifteen minutes later, multiplayer was swapped for singleplayer as Gregg went on on his own and Link went to brush his teeth. He then retreated to bed, watching Gregg play and rereading the letter any time he felt like it, all until sleep took him.

 

At around one in the morning, Link was woken up by his bladder, and he saw that Gregg was still playing. 

  
Still, when Link was woken up by loud voices in the morning, one of them was Gregg’s. It was eight in the morning and Link had no idea how Gregg was already awake and dressed, but that didn’t matter much. Because the other voice in the room belonged to Mark.

 

Link threw the duvet off himself at lightning speed.    
  
“Good morning,” Mark greeted him with a smirk, and Link almost fell off the top bunk.   
  
A thousand thoughts hit Link all at once, as hard as a freight train. Thinking about how if Mark was back, Rhett was too, and why were they back so early — Link hadn’t even had time to get  _ ready— _

  
All that came out of his mouth as he got out of bed was, “You — You freaking came back?”   
  
Mark laughed, sudden and boisterous. “Yeah, our flight was this morning, turns out Ian fucked it up. For some reason the idiot thought there was an exact week’s time between our flights. If this girl we met hadn’t seen our tickets, we’d have been fucked. Almost missed the plane anyway.”   
  
Link scrambled to get dressed as Mark spoke, not having any time to be additionally stressed about the thought of Rhett missing his plane.   
  
“Where’s Rhett?” Link asked, no time for any sort of pretense.   
  
“Oh, yeah, he went to look for you, I think he’s in your house…”   
  
Link didn’t have any time to explain how the house wasn’t theirs, and instead picked the letter up from under his pillow and stuck it in his back pocket. He took his shoes and rushed off, deciding to put them on as he went, and almost falling down twice before he even made it out of the room.    
  
He zoomed down the hallway, and once he was at their threshold, he realised he’d forgotten to pick up his keys.    
  
He tried the knob anyway, and almost started crying in relief when it turned, letting him in. He almost cried, just in general. He also felt like he could throw up, even if this was the happiest he had been in a week.   
  
When he ran up the stairs, he saw that the door to their room was open.   
  
Link felt like his mind shut off in that moment, and his body just went on on its own. When he made it to the room, he could see Rhett walking out of the bathroom, looking around the room, his back turned to Link when Link stood in the doorway.   
  
“Hey,” Link said shakily, walking toward him.    
  
When Rhett turned, almost immediately, Link’s walk turned into a run and he jumped at Rhett, wrapping himself around him, the hug knocking Rhett down onto the bed.   
  
Link squeezed him tightly, burying his face in the side of Rhett’s neck.   
  
“Ah, crap,” Rhett said, laughing, “My back.”

 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Link whispered apologetically, grinning like a fool as he unstuck himself from Rhett a little so he could look at him. It was in an instant that a great fear overtook him. Rhett was so kind and warm and beautiful, and Link’s stomach churned at the thought of Rhett rejecting him. Because it may very well happen. Never mind not being gay, Link felt like Rhett was just twenty thousand leagues above him in every respect. And then he thought about the letter, and wondered if Rhett had already confessed, and if so, what Rhett saw in him, and — 

 

Rhett tightened his arms around Link’s waist, looking at him curiously. “I missed you,” he said with a smile. The smile lit up Rhett’s face and Link’s entire life, and he was completely baffled as to what to do. His gaze flicked from Rhett’s impossibly green eyes to his lips, and Link felt like he couldn’t take it anymore. He leaned down a little, before he caught himself. Still very unsure of anything that was currently happening between them, in the last moment he decided to keep the longing to kiss Rhett to himself. He was still only Rhett’s fake boyfriend.   
  
“I missed you too,” he said, because that was a thing he was sure of.    
  
“You okay?” Rhett asked, and Link nodded vigorously, sighing before giving Rhett a smile. He needed to relax.

 

_ Relax relax relax. _ _  
_ _  
_ “How are you?” Link asked, “How was it?”   
  
“Aw, man,” Rhett said, “It was incredible.”    
  
Thought hearing it made Link happy, it also confused the heck out of him — ‘incredible’ was very different to the ‘whatever’ Rhett had put in his letter.

 

“Hey,” Rhett said when Link didn’t reply, getting all of Link’s attention with a syllable, “I got you something.”   
  
_ You got me you, _ Link wanted to say because some of that giddiness that came with Rhett still persisted, but didn’t. 

  
“Oh, yeah, really?” he asked, and wanted to slap himself with how bastardly unenthusiastic he sounded, when Rhett deserved to hear all the love in the world in Link’s voice.

 

“Yeah,” Rhett said, his own voice sounding a bit less enthusiastic now. Before Link could start to explain or apologise, Rhett continued, changing the subject probably because he thought Link wasn’t interested. “Gosh, I’m so tired.”   
  
“You wanna go to sleep?” Link asked, peeling himself off Rhett.   
  
Rhett looked at him in a weird way, as if confused why Link had moved away. “No, I just thought…” he scooted a bit closer to Link and said, “Just laying here would be perfect.”   
  
Link saw it as his opportunity, and no matter how hard it would be to leave Rhett right now, he could make this at least a little bit better. Truthfully, Link was at a complete loss as to what to do, and his mind scrambled to make at least something out of this reunion, which he felt like he completely botched up.   
  
Link gulped, shifting away and off the bed. “Okay well,” Link said, trying to smile while the worry ate away at him, “I just gotta go and see Jill. I’ll be back in like, five, tops—”   
  
Rhett’s face fell, and Link wanted to take it back.    
  
But then Rhett gave him a small smile and said, “Yeah, no. Do what you gotta do. I’ll just try and… yeah.”   
  
“You gonna be okay?” Link asked, wincing at his own words.   
  
“No. Yeah. Fine,” Rhett said, sitting up on the bed and looking away.   
  
Raising both hands up in an awkward gesture to get Rhett to  _ pause, _ Link backed away, saying: “Okay, I’ll see you real soon. I missed you,” he reminded him.   
  
“You too,” Rhett gave a weak chuckle at that and gestured for Link to get on with it.   
  
Link nodded and walked back through the door, after which he started running. Link’d never crossed the distance between Jill’s room and his own more quickly.    
  
He got in one bang on Jill’s door before she weakly asked, “Who is it?”    
  
Link yelled his own name and she let him in, and he immediately, frantically went into talking. And he wasn’t exactly crying, but as it all came down on him, he dry-heaved through it:   
  
“Rhett’s back early and I didn’t fix up the room and he got me something and I didn’t get him anything — I mean, he’s so — I hope you have my present because if you don’t I’ll just… I don’t know what to—”   
  
“Link,” she tried to stop him, standing up instantly from her bed to pull him down into a hug. Patting his back, she spoke soothingly as his chest heaved anxiously. “Link, calm down. I’m sure he doesn’t care about gifts. Think about it, did you?”   
  
Link shook his head, steadily calming down though his breathing was still a tad shaky.   
  
Jill pulled away and put her hands on his shoulders. “Your gift is there in the corner, but… Are you sure that’s why you’re upset?”   
  
Link shook his head, biting his bottom lip to stop it quivering. “It’s just…. He told Gregg that we weren’t real. He never told me that he did that, I mean, what if he went around reassuring people that he wasn’t gay because he was ashamed of me—?”    
  
“Link, Link,” Jill said softly, when Link’s breath hitched again. “I’m sure that’s not the case. This has to be a misunderstanding.”   
  
“I mean… Um, he — he did also send me this letter,” Link stammered, his hand going to his back pocket, which was empty.   
  
Before she could notice that he was currently looking for it, Jill asked, “Letter?”   
  
“Yeah, crap. I can’t find it,” Link said, patting down the rest of his pockets. “I probably freakin’ dropped it on the way.”   
  
“That’s okay,” Jill said, smiling, “You’ll show me later. Link, a letter! C’mon. I’d say it wasn’t romantic if this was the beginning of the century.”    
  
Link managed a small smile, eternally grateful for Jill. Even though he’d come over as an anxious mess, now he felt better, almost ready to recount all that Rhett had written to Jill — but he knew that would have to wait.   
  
“Listen,” Jill said seriously, “if you’re not ready to tell him — don’t. You don’t have to do anything. If you are ready, you know you can do it without the fancy dinner and the candle,” she said with a laugh that even made Link laugh a little.   
  
Jill sidestepped him quickly and found the case that she brought back over to him. “But just to make it easier,” she said as she handed it to him, “You’ve got something materialistic to get him to love you…” she teased.   
  
Link shook his head, smiling, thinking about how what she said made sense only as a joke because they both knew that Rhett already loved him.    
  
Link wrapped one arm around her in a quick, parting hug, and then rushed out of the room after as they shouted their goodbyes to each other.   
  
_ “Good luck!” _ Jess shouted from the bathroom, and Link almost laughed again.

 

Link ran back, keeping his eyes on the floor lest he find the letter, not even having time to lament about what an actual idiot he was with Rhett being the only thing on his mind. And he wasn’t quite ready yet, still a buzzing mess, but maybe when he saw Rhett, he would be. Maybe not, but even if so, he could talk to Rhett, and he could hug him again, and maybe he could kiss him, make his confession a little more subtle.   
  
Except that when he came back into his room, Rhett wasn’t there.

 

Link set the case Jill gave him by the TV and checked the bathroom, but no —  _ nope.  _ And then he noticed it, Rhett’s suitcase was gone too. And on the bed, where Rhett had been sitting just minutes ago, there was now a small box. Link approached it slowly, and noticed that one of Rhett’s school notebooks was open and placed under the box. At the top of the page it was open on, in tight cursive it said:   
  
_ Went to Gregg’s. I’d rather you not come over.  _ _  
_ _ Sorry about the letter, I was drunk when I said those thingse things.  _ _  
_ _ Sorry again if it made everything weird. Say hi to Jill for me. You should be with her.  _ _  
_ _ Hope we can still be friends? _ _  
_   
His breath now getting heavy with how unreal this felt, Link plopped down onto the bed and pulled the notebook out from under the box — which he deduced was probably the thing that Rhett brought him from Alaska.   
  
Confused beyond himself, already back on his feet and ready to go to Gregg’s, Link’s eye accidentally caught onto something odd on Rhett’s nightstand.    
  
Link knew where he had dropped Rhett’s letter, because it lay opened, most probably read, slightly crumpled and left there.   
  
And suddenly, Link got the Jill thing Rhett was referring to, and knew: Rhett regretted sending that letter. But even if Rhett didn’t really love Link in that way, it didn’t change anything, it wasn’t like Link was suddenly going to be okay, go off and start loving Jill instead.    
  
Link went over to Gregg’s despite the instruction not to. Feeling worn down by the day, he didn’t exactly run there, but took his time, churning everything over in his mind on the way.   
  
He felt like he knocked on Gregg’s door about three hundred times before Gregg opened it, and was immediately like: “He’s not here.”   
  
“Gregg—” Link said, trying to push past him, but Gregg leaned against the door frame and pulled the door up close to himself, effectively blocking his way.   
  
“He really doesn’t wanna talk to you,” Gregg said, trying to catch Link’s gaze with Link craning his neck to look past Gregg, hoping to catch sight of Rhett. “I’d just let him cool off, okay?” Gregg said. “Out of curiousity, what did you do?” 

  
Link grunted, giving up on trying to push Gregg out of the way. Dejected, he dropped his hands to his sides, and Gregg pulled the door closed a bit further as he stepped forward, his hand on the door knob protectively.    
  
“Okay, man,” Gregg said, tone apologetic, “I love you, and I’d totally let you in, but… He’s kinda cryin’ his eyes out. I don’t think I was supposed to notice it, but,  _ dude.” _ _  
_   
Link whimpered, almost making another instinctual but still pathetic attempt to get past Gregg. He reined himself in and stopped trying to look past the slit in the door when Gregg added: ”And the way he told me not to let you in… I’d rather not get mine or your ass kicked today. You shoulda’ seen the way he yelled at Mark just now — like, if looks of disappointment would kill, i would have witnessed a homicide today.”   
  


Link nodded, stepping away. He realised that about the worst thing he could do right now was to not let Rhett have any privacy. 

 

Link gulped and forced himself to steady his voice and speak: “Just … tell him that I don’t care if he regrets sending that letter. I just want him back, okay?” Link spoke loudly enough so that he knew Rhett could hear him.

 

“Okay,” Gregg said slowly, retreating into the room when Link took a few steps down the hall.    
  
Link leaned against the wall, trying to take a calming breath. Really, this was what it was all coming down to, and he should’ve been prepared. Link shouldn’t have built his hopes up, shouldn’t have felt so hopeful even still.   
But he couldn’t help it. 

 

Link made himself sick with worry. No, really, he was pretty sure something was actually wrong. His limbs burnt and ached in tune with his heart, and his head was pounding. 

 

Still, there was something that briefly took his mind off it when he came back to the room. The box that he’d found on his bed contained a two videotapes which made Link’s feverish blush even darker. Reading the titles —  _ Deep Dickin’ Hicks _ and  _ The American Upper (Cl)Ass  _ — Link didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He set them aside, and extricated the third item from the box, which was wrapped in a double layer of bubble-wrap. When Link removed the bubble-wrap, he found a Yankee Candle.   
  
It was a dull copper colour, and had the image of some sort of a pie on it. Rhett had taped a piece of paper over the spot where it said the candle’s name, and mimicking the Yankee Candle font almost perfectly, he wrote  _ ‘Fake Boyfriend’ _ as the name of the scent.   
  
Link smiled down at it. So Link didn’t need to fret about the candle after all, because Rhett was going to take care of it.

When it had been about a few minutes of Link trying to decide whether his tears were due to his fever (which he was now certain he had) or this immense feeling of sadness that overtook him, he decided to get up and go over to Jill’s.   
  
When he went over to Jill to let Jess take his temperature, it was at a hundred and one degrees. 

 

Blessedly, neither Jill nor Jess asked about Rhett. But that didn’t stop Link thinking about him. When Jess sat Link down in their chair for an obligatory cup of tea, Link got to thinking that he could go back to Gregg’s, play the guilt card and make Gregg let him see Rhett because he was sick… He ruled it out quickly, though. He couldn’t confess his feelings now, no matter the small inkling of the ride-or-die feeling he was getting.    
That was probably the cough syrup talking, anyway.   
His desire to keep this to himself for a while overruled it, and the desire wasn’t even born out of consideration for Rhett. The thing he had joked with Jill just about an hour ago about was now scarily real — Link was overcome with a selfish need to know that Rhett loved him at his most ordinary, with no material or physical incentive. No gifts or pity or any sort of  _ trickery. _ And thinking that Rhett had been so ashamed at the concept of feeling something more for Link that it rendered him tearful, Link feared that maybe, he had been wrong about Rhett loving him at his most ordinary.   
He felt like he had an obligation to confess his feelings nonetheless, but seeing Rhett again after not being able to for a short amount of time brought back all the things that reminded him that he couldn’t afford to lose Rhett, and all of this served to make Link more scared than ever. 

 


	13. Chapter 13

Rhett got out of bed only to take a piss. Or he was going to do only that, adamant on staying in bed, but then a massive craving for McDonald’s slowly set in, when it was past noon and he couldn’t force himself to sleep for a minute longer.    
  
He hadn’t slept a lot nor had he slept well, something which was strange considering he hadn’t slept the entire night before, having spent it boarding a flight, flying, and then crashing down. Not literally, the plane landed fine; but it was a few minutes later, after he saw Link, that he melodramatically felt things went so awry it was comparable to a plane crashing. 

 

Rhett put on his windbreaker, grabbed his wallet, and decided to pause by the door to finally meet Gregg’s eyes. It was the least he could do, considering Gregg had been tip-toeing around him for a few hours now.   
  
“Hey,” Gregg said when he caught Rhett looking over, having undoubtedly followed him around the room with his eyes, looking almost startled that Rhett had finally decided to get up, almost standing up from the edge of his bed that he was sitting on. But he stopped himself, still leaning forward like an eager puppy.   
  
“You want something to eat? I’m going to the Mickey Dee’s,” Rhett said awkwardly, twisting one hand behind his back to hold the door knob.   
  
“Um, no, thanks, I’m fine,” Gregg said, and though Rhett found it  _ hella _ weird that Gregg would say no to McDonald’s, he had no desire to ask why. And no time, since Gregg immediately went on, “So you feelin’ better? You wanna talk about it? You gonna go see him?”   
  
Rhett shook his head.    
“I dunno, man.” It was about all he could say with certainty.   
Even after thinking about it for hours, racking his brain with any possible solution to the situation, Rhett didn’t see a way out of it besides pulling away from Link completely, something that made his eyes burn with tears just thinking about. 

 

“Okay,” Gregg said patiently, nodding his head. “Well,” Gregg said, finally standing up to walk over to Rhett. He reached into his pocket once he was close enough to hand Rhett the thing that he pulled out of his pocket — the keys to their building. 

 

“I forgot to give these to him when I went to get the PlayStation the other day.”   
  
Rhett frowned. “Okay…”   
  
“Was thinking you could give them to him for me,” Gregg said with a smile, holding them up like he would drop them any moment.    
  
“You could go over and do it yourself,” Rhett said, opening his palm nonetheless so that Gregg could drop the keys there.   
  
“Dunno, man,” Gregg said, scratching the back of his buzzed head of hair as he walked away, “Feelin’ kinda lazy.”   
  
Big words for someone who’d been looking after Rhett like a concerned mother hen for the past six or so hours.    
  
“Butthole,” Rhett murmured, twisting the doorknob.    
  
“Have fun at Link’s,” Gregg said back, shit-eating grin in place.   
  
Rhett just gave him a small nod back, opened the door and slipped out of the room. He would  _ not _ be going to Link’s.   
  
The entire trip there and back, Rhett was looking around himself, paranoid that he’d see the one person he did  _ not _ want to see. It’s like now that Rhett didn’t want to see him, he felt like Link could be around any corner. But there was no trace of him.

 

He did meet someone on his way back, though. Or, well, he didn’t meet her as much as she jogged over the lawn to meet him upon noticing him.    
  
“Rhett,” she said by way of greeting, slowing down her steps, so Rhett felt obligated to slow down a little himself. They stood there, then, on the pavement in the shade of a birch tree.   
  
“Hi,” Rhett breathed, feeling just a little  _ done _ with the conversation though it had barely started.   
  
“How’s Link?” Jill immediately asked, making Rhett frown.   
  
There was an ugly pause. “I’m fine, thanks for asking,” Rhett said, shaking his head, trying to joke about it to distract himself from the ache he felt about her thinking she had a right to care about Link. Okay, that was unfair. He wasn’t bitter about the question, just taken aback that Jill cared  _ sooo _ much about Link, and probably — and here Rhett  _ was  _ bitter — vice versa; she cared so much that the first thing she did upon seeing Rhett was ask about Link.   
  
Jill shook her head, smiling a little, “Sorry, no, I mean — is he still coughing? How high is his temperature?”

 

A softer pause, then. Rhett’s lips parted in realisation, a hundred thoughts swarming his mind at once, and he felt the tight grip of worry around his heart. “Dunno,” Rhett said dumbly, unable to not look in the general direction of their  _ — Link’s and his — _ room. It was like it was instantly decided where he’d be going next. “I’ll see when I go back… Was just getting him something to eat.”   
  
He held up the McDonalds bag, thanking God that he’d chosen to eat out, even if it was due to the irrational paranoia and fearful realisation that there was a bigger chance of Link walking into the McDonald’s than there was of Link walking into Gregg’s room. And now, with disregard for anything but the need to know about Link’s well-being, Rhett would be walking right into what he, mere minutes ago, had thought of as the bear’s den.

  
There was more talk with Jill before she bode Rhett a good day, but through it all, Rhett was only half-present. Not only his heart, but his mind was with Link, and he couldn’t help but to ask himself that if Jill was Link’s supposed girlfriend now or whatever, why she wasn’t there with him. 

 

So when they parted ways, Rhett took a sharp turn to the right across lawns and around dorm buildings, until he made it to the edge of campus and the building he’d so easily grown to call home. The keys to the building and their room jangled in his pocket, reminding him that he was about to inadvertently indulge Gregg by going over to Link. He didn’t know why lately Gregg and Mark were seemingly so set on sabotaging what was left of his friendship with Link, but he had no time to wonder.   
  
He used the keys to his advantage, opened the door, crossed the entirety of the shared living space in a jog, and clambered up the stairs. Once in front of the door, Rhett paused, unsure of how to proceed. He settled on a simple knock on the door, two short raps after which he could immediately hear:   
  
_ “Come in, Gregg!”  _   
  
Rhett had already opened the door by the time Link had gotten to the end of his sentence, by the time Rhett realised that the name he said wasn’t his own.    
  
_ “Not Gregg,” _ Rhett wanted to say, but judging by Link’s wide-eyed stare, Link had gathered as much.   
  
“Oh... hey,” Link said as soon as he saw him, careful though visibly surprised.   
  
“Hey,” Rhett greeted back, standing in the doorway like an idiot. He had that awful feeling of not knowing what to do with his limbs or how to stand in front of Link, plus the added fact that he could not get enough of looking at Link. Rhett felt like he hadn’t seen him in years. And Link was dang beautiful, even as sleepy and feverish as he looked. He was lying on his side and had been watching TV when Rhett walked in. What Rhett also noticed was that Link had also kept to his own side of the bed, as if to keep Rhett’s side of the bed intact. It made Rhett’s throat constrict a little. He gulped to alleviate it.   
  
Link sat up a little straighter in bed. “Sorry, Gregg called to say he’d be bringing me my keys, so I thought—”   
  
This snapped Rhett out of his daze, and he almost rolled his eyes.  _ Of course Gregg did. _ “I have your keys,” Rhett said, closing the door behind him before he went to fish them out of his pocket.   
  
“Oh,” Link said softly, sitting up completely in bed. He sniffled a little and went to reach for his tissues. After dabbing a tissue at his nose, he asked, voice just a tiny bit nasal: “Is that… All you came here for?” He blindly reached behind himself to set the tissue down onto the nightstand, keeping his eyes fixed on Rhett.   
  
“I, uh,” Rhett said, following the tissue with his gaze so as not to look at Link. “Saw Jill in the hallway. She asked me how you were.”   
  
Rhett chanced a quick glance at Link at saw the confusion on his face, so he went on.   
  
“I said I don’t know,” Rhett said, looking up a little as if to will his eyes to not get wet. The sting of tears was in his eyes nonetheless. “She said that I should remind you to take your paracetamol,” Rhett said, clearing his throat, managing to keep the tears at bay. He let out a soft chuckle, “I hauled ass over here faster than anyone ever moved.”   
  
Rhett took a sideways glance at Link, saw him smiling the tiniest smile. It made Rhett feel a little better. With a desire to stay but no idea how to go about it, he decided to make up reasons that would at least keep him there for a few minutes longer.    
  
“Brought you some food, also,” Rhett said, raising the greasy McDonald’s bag up.   
  
Link’s smile widened, and trying not to think too hard about it, Rhett took his sneakers off.    
  
“Thank you,” Link said, and then nothing was said for a bit. Link didn’t look like he wanted Rhett gone, though. Rhett walked over to the bed to hand the paper bag to Link, and when Link accepted it, Rhett lingered there. He lowered himself down and sat on the bed.    
  
“So how  _ are  _ you?” Rhett asked, pulling himself up on the bed.   
  
“Better,” Link said, grinning, and then coughed a little. Worried, Rhett leaned over, hopeless in trying to think of what to do.   
  
“Are you taking your meds?” Rhett asked, his hand on Link’s forehead before he could stop himself. Link looked up at him, his lips parted.   
  
Rhett retracted his hand quickly. “You don’t feel that hot.”   
  
Link looked at him still, and then shook his head slowly. “Uh, no, I’m… I feel okay.”   
  
“Okay,” Rhett said, nodding. He looked around himself, unsure of what to do. Maybe it was his time to leave, because he didn’t know what he could think of to stay.   
  
Link turned to set the bag he was still clinging to onto the nightstand. Rhett turned too, about to stand up, when he heard Link’s voice.   
  
“Rhett?” Link called, making Rhett turn back around instantly.   
  
“Yeah?” Rhett gulped.   
  
“Stay?” Link asked, running a hand through his own hair and pushing it back a little. “I mean, it’s just…”   
  
Rhett shook his head. “No, of course. I’ll stay.”   
  
Link grinned. “Good.”   
  
“Don’t think I’m up to somethin’ funny, or whatever…” Rhett said bashfully and regretted it as soon as he did.   
  
All Link did was snort. “What are you talking about?”    
  
“Well, y’know,” he said, eyebrows furrowing indignantly as he scooted up closer to Link on the bed, “I don’t know what you’re thinkin’ of me. After that letter, and all… Anyway I — Mark wrote that for me when I was drunk, it’s not… Don’t mean anything.”   
  
Link was silent as Rhett rambled, and was looking at him with a small, understanding smile. “It’s okay, bo.”   
  
“Just here to take care of ya,” Rhett added, to confirm it, and Link nodded and smiled.   
  
“Thank you,” Link said.   
  
“It’s nothin’,” Rhett grumbled, making Link smile again. Rhett loved managing to make him smile.    
  
“I missed you,” Link said, and he sounded happy, and Rhett hated himself for bringing up what he was about to bring up.   
  
“I missed you too,” Rhett said, “And it’s not just Alaska, I feel… Feels like this thing ended up doing us more harm than good.”   
  
Link looked confused again, so Rhett quickly continued in order to elaborate.    
  
“I miss you bein’ my friend, man. If I went too far with this, I mean, I’m not gonna lie…” Rhett was trying to get the words out, but there was something stopping him. If he really wasn’t gonna lie, he’d have told Link about his hands and his lips and his dick right there and then, but the trouble was that Link was after someone else’s hands and lips and private parts. So Rhett said, “It’s been cool living here with you, but maybe we shouldn’t live together anymore.”   
  
Link was looking down at his hands. His eyes were a little red and glazed over, and Rhett thought it was probably the fever setting in.    
  
Rhett sighed, “It’s just… Maybe things would get back to normal if I just moved out.”   
  
Link shook his head. “No way I’m living in this place without you. We can give the keys back so they can give them to a real couple — say we broke up or somethin’. Live with Gregg.”   
  
Rhett shrugged. “You can just ask Jill to live with you.”   
  
Link shook his head, “No, I… Gosh.”   
  
“I mean, we can try to hold out,” Rhett said, shrugging. Maybe, over time, his feelings for Link would return to being just friendly. Maybe it would hurt less to think of him with Jill. Rhett shook his head as if to clear it. “But I really think you should take the room.”   
  
“Rhett—”   
  
“No, really. I’d like it if you did. You deserve every bit of it. The bath, the study space, the bed…”    
  
Link looked at him for a bit before nodding, and then shaking his head, as if he couldn’t comprehend what Rhett was saying. Why couldn’t he see what he was doing to Rhett?   
  
“It would just feel weird without you,” Link said.   
  
Rhett smiled, looking over at Link fondly. “Well, with your germs all around, no way am I staying here,” he teased, making Link smile too.    
  
“You’re staying here now, though…” Link teased right back.   
  
“That’s only to take care of you,” Rhett said smugly.    
  
“Mhm…” Link mumbled, leaning back on his pillow.    
  
Rhett grinned, leaning back and trying to relax. It almost seemed like there was hope for Rhett to stay even longer than he’d first intended to, for him to stay forever. But it took one look at Link to remind Rhett of how much he wanted to kiss him, and how much he wasn’t allowed to.   
  
Link sat back up to flatten his pillow against the headboard and sit against it, and then peeked into the brown paper bag that Rhett had brought him. Rhett’s stomach grumbled at the sight, but he wasn’t about to say anything. Link was the one who needed to eat, not him.   
  
Link reached into the bag, and then with his hand still inside it, looked at Rhett over his shoulder.   
  
“There’s like four burgers in here,” Link said, smiling like he was keeping in laughter.   
  
“There’s just two!” Rhett was quick to defend, “And a chicken burger…”   
  
“So three, I’m sorry if I  _ overreacted—” _ Link said, looking at him kind of… fondly. He picked out the two boxes of burgers and handed them over to Rhett. “You don’t expect me to eat all of this, do ya?”   
  
“You need to keep your strength up,” Rhett took the boxes in his hands and Link went to get him the fries too.    
  
“And I can’t drink soda ‘cause of my throat,” Link just went on, pulling the plastic, lidded cup out of the bag.   
  
Rhett had to resort to putting the food onto his own nightstand so that he could accept the drink.    
  
“Want me to get you something else to drink?” Rhett asked quickly.   
  
Link shook his head. “Got my tea here,” he smiled, “thanks, though.”   
  
Rhett grinned back. “I guess I’m gonna have to stay for lunch, then,” Rhett said, looking at the pile of food on the nightstand.   
  
“Oh, you’re stayin’,” Link confirmed. He then proceeded to sneeze, which had Rhett leaning over him almost instantly in worry.    
  
Link just took a tissue and blew his nose, and Rhett slowly pulled back. They each got themselves a burger, neither commenting on the fact that it may have been unwise to eat in bed. If they didn’t use a bed this nice for something so reckless at least once, then what was the point?

 

They tucked into their food, sharing fries and small smiles, Rhett managing to leave a small ketchup stain on the duvet.    
  
“How’d you get so sick, anyway?” Rhett asked, when he was wiping his hands after his first burger. Link was not even halfway through his own chicken burger, having always been a slower eater than Rhett, but especially now when he paused every other moment to sneeze or cough.    
  
“Spent too much time with Jill, I guess,” Link said, and Rhett nodded.   
“Dunno who she caught it from,” Link added, and Rhett nodded some more. 

 

They were silent until the end of their meal after that, save for the few times Rhett asked Link if he was okay after a particularly fierce coughing fit. 

  
With a groan, Link gave up on his burger, closed the small cardboard box and set it back on the nightstand. He licked his fingers clean and then wiped them before taking a few gulps of his tea. Rhett had already finished with eating, and was sitting with his own pillow behind his back, trying to watch TV – though his eyes always ended up fixated on Link as he ate.   
  


Link took his pillow and moved it closer to Rhett, almost resting it on top of his arm. Rhett proceeded to move his arm up to the top of the headboard, then, and without saying anything, Link put the pillow in the crook of Rhett’s armpit. He then lay his head down on it, pressing his body close to Rhett’s. Link closed his eyes and softly moaned in pain, and Rhett’s heart hurt a little. “You okay?” Rhett asked, wanting to touch Link but not wanting to make it weird.    
  
“Hurts,” Link murmured, but didn’t specify what hurt. Rhett didn’t ask, just put his arm down and around him, thinking a friendly touch like that might not be too much for Link. Link only pressed closer to Rhett, his head completely abandoning his pillow in favour of Rhett’s chest. Rhett brought his other hand up to Link’s hair, where it fell over his forehead a little and made him look like he had a fringe. He brushed it away, platonically. Was there another way to play with the hair of the love of your life?

  
Link seemed to like Rhett playing with his hair, because he hummed contently and fell asleep shortly after. Looking down at him as he lowered himself down, Rhett pulled him in so they were both more comfortable. It took seconds for him to close his eyes, and fall asleep as well.

  
Rhett woke up to the sound of a quiet whimper. Link was still where he had been, tucked up against Rhett’s chest, with Rhett’s arm around him. He was shaking, though, his hair and the collar of his shirt soaked through with sweat.   
  
“Oh, crap,” Rhett mumbled to himself, sleep leaving him immediately when he realised that Link was burning up. Rhett gently moved Link so that he could get up and get him a wet cloth to put on his forehead.    
  
Before he could get up from the bed, Link woke up. “Rhett,” Link mumbled weakly. Rhett lay back down next to him, murmuring softly as he pushed the hair that had stuck to Link’s forehead aside. “Just gonna go get you something for your fever,” Rhett said. He got up quickly and walked over to the bathroom, trying to find something he could soak and use as a wet cloth. There were no actual pieces of cloth and all the towels were too big, so Rhett walked out into their bedroom and took the first thing he thought he could when he opened one of the drawers.   
  
He took the boxers, folded as they were, and rushed to the bathroom to run some water over them. He drenched them and then wrung them out so that they weren’t dripping, and made his way back to bed. He smoothed Link’s hair and pushed the few stray hairs away from his forehead so that he could press the wet cloth there. “I’m here,” Rhett was saying, “How are you feeling?”   
  
“Better,” Link said, much like he had before, though now it was soft and feverish and he did it with his eyes closed, “Better when you’re here.”   
  
Rhett smiled. He knew it was most probably just the fever talking, but he couldn’t help his happy heart which soared at the words. All he wanted to do then was take care of Link, and to know that he was making Link feel better just by being there made Rhett feel like he could die.   
  
“I’m here,” Rhett confirmed, in lieu of telling him he loved him. He set his head down onto the pillow next to Link and watched him carefully, for any signs that Link might be in pain. For a while, they just lay there, Link shivering, his cheeks red and his eyelashes fluttering beneath the cloth Rhett had placed on his forehead.    
  
Then Link craned his neck as if to stretch, and unbeknownst to him, almost pressed his nose into Rhett’s cheek. Rhett backed away a little, cheeks burning, watching Link as the latter opened his eyes with a quiet groan.   
  
“You okay?” Rhett asked. Link nodded, and shifted a little on the bed, which made him come even closer to Rhett. He reached up with his hand to take the wet cloth and before he took it off his head, he palpated it, brow furrowing as if he couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was feeling.   
  
When he finally took the boxers into his hand to pull them away, he asked, “Whose boxers are these?”   
  
Rhett was quiet for a moment. “Fuck… Uh,” Rhett didn’t swear often, and Link smiled when he heard him do it. Rhett went on with a smile of his own, “they’re clean.”   
  
Link laughed breathlessly, undoubtedly knowing what that meant. “Got it.”   
  
He set them aside, and Rhett worried that they might make a wet patch on the duvet, but not as much as he worried about Link. Rhett looked him over, carefully taking every bit of him in. Link was looking back at him with gentle eyes, and though the gleam in those eyes was beautiful, Rhett knew that it was a bad sign for someone who had just woken up with a fever.    
  
“You should take some paracetamol,” Rhett whispered, bringing a hand up to brush a stray lock of Link’s hair away from his damp forehead. Link wrapped his arms around Rhett’s middle and pulled him in, Rhett’s solid form against him, half on top of him.   
  
“Bo,” Rhett said, “I feel like I’m gonna crush you.”

 

Link murmured something unintelligible and pulled him in closer.    
  
“You should take some paracetamol,” Rhett reinstated with a smile, “Lemme get you a glass of water.” He made a pathetic attempt at pulling away, but really, he let Link hold him there.    
  
Rhett brought his arm around Link protectively, and Link buried his face in Rhett’s chest. “No. I’m dead,” Link mumbled.   
  
Rhett chuckled and shifted to a more comfortable position, pulling Link close. “That’s not how it works.”

Rhett craned his neck to look down and him and had to fight to resist kissing the top of Link’s head, as wet as it was. “C’mon,” he said, “can’t die on me now.”   
  
Link shifted against him and pulled away a little, but still had a tight grasp around his waist.    
Still sounding a little loopy, Link said: “Okay. But you gotta bring me my candle.”   
  
“Your… Oh—” Rhett said, feeling a blush creep up his neck to his cheeks. “Don’t have anything to light it with, though,” Rhett said, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. 

  
Link shrugged, and sounding way too happy, said: “Dun’ matter.”

 

Rhett grinned and got up from the bed, first getting Link a glass of water. As Link used it to down his pill, Rhett walked over to the dresser and picked the candle up.    
  
He sat back down onto the bed and passed the candle to Link, who looked very pleased to have it in his hands.    
  
“Thanks,” Link said.   
  
“Welcome.”   
  
“No, I mean, thanks for buying it. And the movies, too,” Link said, grinning.   
  
Rhett blushed even more furiously. “Welcome.”   
  
Link gave him one last grin before looking down at the candle.  _ “Fake boyfriend,”  _ he read in a whisper, giving a little chuckle. “Didn’t know they made scents outta those,” he said, uncapping the candle jar to take a whiff. “Smells good.”   
  
Rhett decided to fully give in to the teasing. Screw Link if he thought Rhett was just gonna sit there and take it. “Yeah,” Rhett said, deadpan. “Reminds me of you.”

 

Link scratched his blunt fingernails over the edge of the sticker Rhett had put on before trying to unpeel it. Since he started at the ‘fake’ side, Rhett’s heart couldn’t help but stop when Rhett briefly thought about how nice it would be if Link just ripped that off, renamed the candle ‘boyfriend’.    
  
Link peeled the sticker off and read the actual name of the candle out loud. “Sweet potato pie.”   
  


Rhett looked at him, Link’s eyes still fixed on the candle as a slow smile spread on his face. “Ah,” Link said.   
  
“What?” Rhett asked.

 

“That’s… so sweet.”   
  
Rhett shook his head, looking away as a wide smile tugged at his lips. “Shut up.”   
  
Link laughed, nudging Rhett with his elbow. He seemed to have recovered from his fever very fast, and Rhett was glad, even if Link was being annoying.   
  
“I’ll take the fact that it remindedyou of me as a compliment,” Link said.   
  
Rhett nodded. “I actually thought this was the weirdest — I mean, it did kinda remind me of you, but it’s a dang pie. I wanted to get you the sweet honeysuckle one, but then Mark was like…” Rhett suddenly realised he’d better not finish that. “Um, nevermind.”   
  
Link was looking at him with his lips parted like he was gagging to hear the rest of the story. “Mark was what?” Link asked, an edge of laughter to his voice.   
  
Rhett grumbled out, “He asked if that was because I wanna give you a sweet honeysuckle... or somethin’, so um—”   
  
Link laughed, amusedly and to himself, and thankfully didn’t ask if that was the case. Being around Link the whole day had eaten away at Rhett’s resolve, and he wouldn’t have put it past himself to answer truthfully, which of course meant answering that yes, that  _ was _ the case.    
  
“Well,” Link said, bringing Rhett back to earth from where his mind was already construing scenarios of him giving Link a  _ suckle— _ “I like this one a lot, so no worries.”   
  
Rhett smiled, “Glad ya do.”    
  
He then stretched his arms above his head and yawned, and Link stretched out a little too. “I should probably take a bath,” Link said, leaning back as if plastered to the headboard with fatigue.    
  
Rhett nodded. “Yeah. I should probably go.”

 

Link opened his mouth as if to say something, but then smacked his lips together and kept them pressed, visibly thinking it over. Rhett stayed in place, letting him have as much time as he wanted.   
  
“Help me up?” Link finally asked, tentatively.    
  
Rhett nodded, because of course he would. He got up from the bed backwards, looking at Link as Link slowly scooted over to the edge of the bed too. Before Link could put his feet on the ground, Rhett reached over and hooked one arm under his knees and the other under his middle.   
  
“What are you—” Link asked, laughing as Rhett picked him up bridal-style. Link scrambled to wrap his arms around Rhett’s neck to steady himself, and Rhett froze.    
  
He’d never felt more embarrassed in his life. The familiar and dreadful feeling almost made him drop Link back onto the bed.   
  
Link wanted some help walking over to the bathroom. He did not ask to be  _ carried _ there.   
  
“I’m, uh—” Rhett gave him a toothy grin, which came more easily when he saw Link’s genuine grin. “Taking you over to the, uh…” he nodded in the direction of the bathroom, speaking as if it was the most mundane thing in the world.   
  
“Right,” Link confirmed, still grinning, looking irritatingly happy. “We going, then?”   
  
With a high-pitched ‘mhm’ Rhett began walking, carrying a smug Link over to the bathroom those few paces before he gently set him down, helped him steady his footing before he leaned against the washing machine.    
  
“Thank you,” Link said as he straightened himself out.   
  
“No problem,” Rhett mumbled. “So, uh,” Rhett began, backing away, “You’ll call if you need anything?”   
  
Link nodded, and reached toward Rhett with his hand when Rhett began to walk to the door. When this got Rhett’s attention, Link dropped the hand, looking away before looking back up at Rhett.    
  
“You really gotta go?” Link asked, voice small.   
  
Rhett really didn’t see another way out of it. If he spent the night there, there would be nothing stopping him from spending another night, and another, and another.   
“I’ll come back if you need anything,” Rhett said, trying to keep his voice steady.   
  
“Stay,” Link said quickly, and Rhett closed his eyes for a moment, leaning against the doorframe before he unstuck himself from it and walked back over to Link.   
  
Link craned his neck so that he could try to catch Rhett’s eyes, while Rhett looked down. Link spoke gently, “Don’t worry about anything that happened, if you want we can… We can go back to how it was before, let’s just take it slow and—”   
  
Rhett looked up at him, then, right into those blue eyes that ruined his life every time he looked at them. They were now unsteady, Link’s gaze flitting all over Rhett’s face as he waited for Rhett to reply.    
  
And Rhett wanted to stay, but not as a friend. He wanted all of Link, the worry and the love and the  _ sweet honeysuc—  _   
  
All of which made Rhett realise that he was done taking it slow. Maybe there was something in the fact that Gregg and Mark so often sabotaged their friendship. Maybe they did it in hopes of it becoming something else, something more, something real. Rhett was ready for things to get real, even if there was a chance that the outcome of that might not be the one favourable to him, if it meant link would only want to be his friend. Rhett didn’t know what would happen, but he knew that he finally needed to fess up. Link deserved it.   
  
“I gotta ask you somethin’,” Rhett said slowly, voice soft. This was it. “And then you can decide if I stay.”   
  
Link gulped, straightening up and giving Rhett a nod. “Yeah, I mean… Okay.”   
  
Rhett took a deep breath, looking at Link carefully, searching for a reaction as soon as he spoke, “What we have… it’s not real, and that’s… I mean, of course it’s not,” he rambled, and Link just looked at him attentively, not giving Rhett any clues as to how he felt. When Link nodded, Rhett went on, quickly, breathlessly, “Do you think it would be stupid if one of us actually fell for the other?”

  
A pause that nearly sent Rhett into cardiac arrest.    
  
“Maybe,” Link finally said, and Rhett’s heart sank. There it is, there it goes, it’s  _ done, _ it’s  _ over— _   
  
Link took a shaky breath and went on. “But not if both of us did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! so excited to have finally posted this amidst all this uni business i needed to take care of. now excuse me as i go fangirl over your comments on the last chapter for one last time before replying and read the new update of
> 
>  
> 
> [over the phone](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8870836/chapters/20338270)
> 
>  
> 
> which is making my life worth living atm <3


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk why i didn't post this for so long. but LG life's good now, and i never intended on ever leaving this, and i will of course finish this all i could always promise that i would, so dont worry <3\. thanks heaps for the constant support, xxx

Link’s heart was in his throat. Rhett’s gaze was intense, his eyes flicking over Link’s face as Link stood there, dry lips parted as he held his breath. He was still sick, still snotty and red-nosed and ruffle-haired, but there was something inside him crying now or never, and he was smiling, he couldn’t not — because Rhett had got the ball to roll. There was nothing, especially not a bit of snot, that was going to stop Link now.  
  
“What?” Rhett finally asked, soft and breathy, lips quirking like they wanted to turn up at the corners, but were afraid, still unsure, still careful.  
  
Link gulped, ducking his head as his dumb smile only widened. “I was always hoping to do this more subtly…” he muttered, looking up just in time to see Rhett cross the distance between them. What he said next, he said directly into Rhett’s face. “Maybe that was my mistake.”  
  
Rhett didn’t say anything, just looked at him, but the way he held himself told Link of just how much Rhett wanted to reach out for him, touch him. And for the first time, Link allowed himself to recognise the intensity in his gaze as that of someone who’s _longing._  


Without touching him, Rhett had seemingly wrapped himself around Link, so impossibly close to him, his breath a pleasant sensation on Link’s warm forehead.  
  
Link breathed, rambling because he was never like the quiet, gentle giant he was in love with. “When I kiss you or _— make love —_  to you I don’t know if it’s _real_ for you but—”  
  
“It is,” Rhett breathed, nodding, smiling. Rhett reached out to touch him, then, breaking the tension as well as the silence. To the feeling of Rhett’s arms around him, Link’s eyes fogged up.  
  
“It is?” Link could tell that he was crying, then. His already glazed eyes had filled up until they could no longer take it, his weakened state making his heart susceptible to even the tiniest movement from Rhett - the way he held Link by the waist to steady him, how his eyes were scouring Link’s face with open adoration, how he used his other hand to gently wipe a tear off link’s cheek. Link loved him so much, so he let himself cry.  
  
“I’m in love with you,” Rhett said, to reaffirm all already stated. Link _wept._  
  
It was kind of embarrassing, but then he was laughing, hands up so that he could put his face into them as he smiled, covering his eyes to try and stop the tears because Rhett was laughing too, and he was so beautiful, Link had to take a moment to look away from him.  
  
When Link looked up, Rhett was still smiling at him but now it was through a few of his own tears —none of which he let fall from his eyes but which made his eyes shine beautifully, and then Link raised his hands even higher, to hold Rhett’s face and pull him down just enough to crash his lips into Rhett’s own.

 

Link held him there, firm and unwavering, feeling his heart surge in his chest. Rhett reciprocated the kiss, not hard and demanding but assured and steady, his arms around Link gentle and confident and safe.  
  
Finally, they were really kissing, and Link was above cloud nine.

 

* * *

 

  
  
Link woke up in much the same position he’d fallen asleep in. Draped over Rhett, one of Rhett’s arms around him as the other snored softly.  
  
The night before, Rhett had kissed him until Link’s knees had literally buckled and he had to take a breather, his illness not allowing him to fully relish the feeling of Rhett loving him. Well, that was untrue — there was nothing that could diminish the feeling of finally getting to experience Rhett’s unconcealed and overtly _romantic_ love. But Link’s knees had still buckled and he had to be carried into the bathtub by Rhett. His body was still weak, because even if he felt like Rhett’s love might cure every one of his ailments, that was unfortunately not very realistic. He had sat on the edge of the tub with his feet inside it, reclining against the wall and looking up at Rhett with lidded eyes.  
  
Rhett was silently tinkering with the tap, sticking his hand under the stream to get the water to a perfect temperature and then picking out Link’s shampoos and asking him which one he would prefer Rhett try to bubble up into the bath. Link raised a foot in the direction of the raspberry-scented bubble bath, trying his best not to reveal that the shampoo he would most want to drown himself in was one of Rhett’s shower gels, which Link may had secretly been using in order to attempt to get Rhett’s scent to linger on him more permanently and prominently.  
  
Rhett made him a bath and then left him there with a kiss to the temple and a smile that could outshine the sun, which was quickly clouded over with seriousness as he turned back to Link one more time and warned:  
  
“Call me if you need anything, okay?”  
  
Then he left — thankfully just to the other room, leaving Link to keep nodding as he looked after him, leaving him to savour his own privacy in undressing to the nude. It was something Link hoped he wouldn’t get to savour for long, yet he appreciated Rhett giving him space like this. The idea that Rhett might be a little nervous about seeing Link in the nude made Link so giddy he decided to think of something, anything else. Which he only partly succeeded in, as his mind ultimately drifted to Rhett again. However, this time he thought of something else in regards to Rhett — he thought of calling Rhett back in, because he felt the cold grip of anxiety around his heart when he realised he hadn’t thanked him for any of this. Link battled with himself for a little while, rehearsing shouting out Rhett’s name in his head before he took a deep breath and just did it.  
  
“Rhett?” Link raised his voice toward the door, and could hear footsteps almost instantly.  
  
“Yes?” Rhett asked, peeking in from behind the door.  
  
“Uh, just wanted to say thanks,” Link said, shrugging a little, now regretting feeling confident about having Rhett see him in the nude, even if his nude form was concealed by hills of tiny, white bubbles.  
  
Rhett opened the door a bit further and leaned against the doorframe, looking at Link with a smile on his face. The way he stood and the way his clothes hung off his body just made Link amazed as to how such a beautiful guy could have set his sights on him in the first place. And there was something, something Link couldn’t aptly pinpoint or describe, something about the contrast of Rhett being fully dressed while Link was fully naked that was just sort of… thrilling.  
  
“It’s no problem,” Rhett said, and Link snapped his gaping mouth shut, feeling himself blushing.  
  
After a moment’s consideration, Link opened his mouth again. “Come here?” he pleaded softly, his heartbeat racing when Rhett, after a look of surprise came over him, slowly walked over and lowered himself onto the edge of the tub. As soon as he was sat down, Rhett leaned over to capture Link’s mouth in a kiss, and Link leaned up, holding the edge of the tub for balance as he pushed up into the kiss.  
  
Rhett kissed him again, and again, and again, seemingly done worrying about letting Link get better first. Link was eternally grateful that all that politeness was out of the window, and kissed Rhett as feverishly as he’d wanted to kiss him for months, retrospectively probably years now.  
  
Rhett curled his hand in Link’s hair and then carded his fingers through it. He brought his other hand to Link’s collarbone, making Link shiver, and Link used Rhett’s thigh instead of the tub to keep himself close to Rhett as they kissed.  
After a particularly breathtaking kiss, Rhett nuzzled Link’s nose with his own and looked into his eyes before asking, “Real boyfriends?”  
Link bit his smiling lip and nodded, sealing it with the impatient kiss before he confirmed it verbally, “Real boyfriends.”  
  
Rhett stayed until Link was done with his bath. He sort of ended up helping wash Link’s hair, but again left before he could see Link in the nude. There was something endearing about how bashful he was, and after he left Link found himself submerging his head under the lukewarm bathwater for a moment so as to cool off.  
  
Rhett, who had stripped down to his underwear, had brought Link some clean clothes. Link abandoned all but the clean boxers in the bathroom, and settled next to Rhett in bed to kiss him until they tired of it, which was literally up until the point that sleep took Link.  
  


* * *

  
  
Link raised himself up, without any time to think about how nice Rhett’s chest was or just about anything else save from pulling the covers up to conceal as much of their near-nude selves as he could, because he had woken up to the sound of the door opening.

 

Rhett was still asleep, which Link thought was cute but also puzzling, since Gregg made a ruckus coming into the room. Thinking back, Link really should have locked the door. Who’d even let Gregg in through the front door, downstairs?  
  
“Thought I’d just try the door,” Gregg said, looking between Link and Rhett, apologetic grimace in place as he pointed back at the door knob with his thumb, which he then held up.  
  
Link shook his head, raising his hand up to rub one of his sleep-addled eyes.  


Thumb still up, Gregg grinned. “Was unlocked.”  
  
Link rolled his eyes. “No way...”

 

Gregg laughed, “Mhm,” he said, shit-eating grin in place as he leaned against Rhett’s suitcase which Link noticed now stood by the wall. “Figured I’d bring this over…” he said, indicating it.  
  
“Oh, Rhett’s not — he’s —” Link began, but as he looked over to a half-naked Rhett that was draped across the bed with a smile, Link realised he didn’t know where he was going with that sentence, exactly.  
  
“Mhm,” Gregg just hummed again.  


“Thanks,” Link said, smiling to himself. His heart, thankfully unbeknownst to Gregg, was wildly fluttering inside his chest. It would continue to do so as Gregg left, even getting more embarrassingly happy when Link was left alone in the room, with the realisation that his boyfriend was sleeping next to him.

 

The boyfriend wouldn’t be allowed to sleep for much longer, because Link, overwhelmed and feeling particularly gooey, would roll on top of him and press an affectionate kiss to his cheek.  
It took a few kisses for Rhett to wake up and realise he was being violated, upon which he proceeded to flip them over so that Link wasn’t the one on top anymore, but he did become the one to receive a series of Rhett’s own cheek-kisses.  
  
“Good morning,” Rhett rumbled, nose pressed to Link’s neck.  
  
“Mornin’...” Link said, his arms coming up and around Rhett, his hands trailing gently up and down Rhett’s back.  
  
Rhett hummed, almost purred, under his touch, all warm and soft and lazy on top of Link.  
  
Link smiled, tilted his chin down as much as he could to look at the top of Rhett’s head. “We should get up,” he said softly, making Rhett squirm on top of him, but not move away.

Link grinned and moved away a little so that he could look at Rhett’s face. “I could show you my gift…”  
  
Rhett opened one eye to peer up at him. “What gift?” he mumbled, and then he must have got distracted by seeing Link’s lips for one of the first times that day because he immediately leaned in for a kiss and prevented Link from answering the exciting question.  
  
“I wanted to get you something, I mean, no doubt that I’ll steal it from you as soon as you let me, because it’s awesome—”  
  
Rhett cut off Link’s ramblings with another kiss. “What is it?” he then asked before proceeding to bury his face in Link’s neck, where he kissed and nipped at the skin, making Link squirm.  
  
“Gotta get up first,” Link teased, making Rhett groan and pull him closer. After a moment he pushed him away and got up, finally, sitting on the edge of the bed and looking over his shoulder at Link.  
  
“I gotta pee first,” Link said from the bed, blushing a little, and he saw Rhett shake his head fondly as Link scooted down the bed before walking over to the bathroom. In the bathroom, one thing lead to another, and soon Link had both peed and brushed his teeth, and then washed his face and fixed his hair a little before he walked out. He had a boyfriend now, someone to look good for. He might have secretly applied a dab of cologne to his neck, too, because smelling good wasn’t a bad thing either.  
  
When he came back into the room, he found Rhett on the bed, sitting and sipping water out of the bottle Link kept on his nightstand. He was also dressed, which made Link’s blush darken when he realised he must have taken longer than he had planned in the bathroom.  
  
“You look nice,” Rhett teased, and Link rolled his eyes. He could have said the same about Rhett’s choice of blue jeans and burgundy t-shirt, but he didn’t, out of spite. And maybe because he was a little distracted by the fact that Rhett was, again, dressed, while Link was quite indecent, in only his boxers.  
  
“Thank you,” Link said, a bite to his tone, as he walked over to the bed and sat himself next to Rhett. He had debated planting his ass in Rhett’s lap, but in the end decided against it. There would be time for that. Now, however — Link quickly stood up again to get the black case that stood by the dresser. He brought it over to Rhett and set in on the bed next to him, and then spread his arms as he presented it to Rhett.  
  
Link sat on the other side of Rhett so that Rhett was sandwiched between Link and the case and had to turn to the side if he wanted to give Link one of his incredulous looks. He was giving Link one of those looks when Link told him to, “Go on, open it!”  
  
And with careful hands, Rhett did open it.  
  
“I had some money saved up,” Link said as he peered over to try and catch a glimpse of Rhett’s reaction as the latter opened the case. “And Jill’s dad had this—”  
  
Rhett’s lips were parted and he touched the insides of the case with a reverent hand.  
  
“It’s a VHS camera,” Link elaborated, and then berated himself for doing so — _Rhett can see what it is, dumbass_ — before rambling on, watching Rhett’s wide eyes carefully, “Panasonic Omnimovie. From 1985, uh, it’s suppose’ta be real good, Jill’s dad was just looking to get rid of it since he never used it, and he wanted a digital camera, one of those Sony handycams, you know.”  
Rhett took the camera out and touched every other thing that was in the case, all the cables and extensions, the tripod and every button on the camera, as Link rambled on, gagging to ask Rhett if he liked it. “It’s pretty old,” Link said a bit self-deprecatingly because he should have been able to get Rhett one of those handycams or something, “But allegedly it works pretty good. Jill said that her dad’s barely used it, it’s, um, mint condition,” he said with a toothy grin, and finally Rhett had turned to look at him. Voice a little weaker, Link went on, “And we have a VCR here so I thought you could film and we could —”  
  
Rhett shut him up by crashing his lips against Link’s.  
  
“Shouldn’t give up on our dreams,” Link went on as soon as Rhett pulled away, wanting to get that out.  
  
Rhett was nodding in support of his rambling, agreeing with Link’s words, a smile bunching his cheeks up.  
  
Link’s eyes almost dampened a little with how hard he was smiling himself. “So you like it?” Link asked.  
  
Rhett shook his head, closed his eyes, and kissed him again. He didn’t let him go for a good half-minute.  
  
“How can you even ask—” Rhett began, shaking his head, “Of course I like it, I… You — you’re so—” Rhett shook his head again, but seemingly wasn’t able to come up with words. “I love you.”  
Or maybe he was able to.  
  
The words caught Link off guard, and they seemed to have caught Rhett off guard too, because soon after he went on rambling himself just like Link had done moments ago.  
“Maybe it’s too early for me to say that in terms of our… well, you know,” Rhett said shyly, and Link smiled, because he did know. “But you know I do. Love you.”  
  
Link bit his lip and smiled, looking down. “I love you too,” he said softly before looking up at Rhett and letting Rhett kiss him again.  


* * *

  
  
It wasn’t long before they decided to test out the camera. Rhett had fixed it and placed on it’s tripod a bit further away from where they sat against the foot of the bed, on the floor. As Link giggled at Rhett’s insistent touches and kisses Rhett planted another kiss on his cheek and Link giggled even more happily. When Link turned his head toward Rhett, Rhett kissed him on the lips, gentle and soft and happy.  
  
Then Rhett stood up, with his eyes on the camera, and said “I’m keepin’ this one.”  
  
The camera had luckily come with a blank tape on which they could record a few easy test minutes of them just sitting there, and Link knew that he’d be asking Rhett for a copy. Even if Link _was_ just in his boxers all throughout the footage. And even if Link felt that everything from this point on would be shared between them, so that there was no need for Link to have his own copy of anything.  
  
As Rhett stood up, Link used a timid hand to pinch the fabric of his jeans and stop him in his tracks. A little confused, Rhett turned back around and looked down at him, and Link gave him a shy smile.  
  
Link gulped and looked away for a moment before looking back up at Rhett, knowing his face was the shade of lobster. “Why don’t you keep it rollin’?” Link suggested.  
  
Rhett looked even more confused, but only for a second. Still, even if Link could tell by his face that he knew where Link was going with this, Rhett took the time to confirm it. “Keep it rolling?”  
  
Standing up, Link nodded and affirmed it, “Yeah. You can fix it up,” he said quietly, walking over to the camera to peer through it and see what the lens encompassed at that moment, “So that it points to the bed. And I can go get the lube?” he had straightened up and looked Rhett in the eye by the time he uttered that last part, and could enjoy seeing Rhett’s eyes widen and darken.  
  
“O-okay,” Rhett said, voice hoarse. Link grinned up at him and then let his gaze roam appreciatively down Rhett’s body — he couldn’t say he was expecting to see the bulge that he saw at the front of Rhett’s pants. Link grinned up at him giddily and in a moment of unforeseen confidence strutted away toward the bathroom, feeling Rhett’s eyes on his back.  
  
Link came back to see Rhett sitting on the bed, still straining against his jeans. The camera got a glance only because Link couldn’t not acknowledge it, and he had to admit that the camera added to the tingling feeling the sight of Rhett gave him.  
  
And the sight of Rhett, _Gosh._

 

Link thought that Rhett struggling to look coolly unaffected by the situation while being clearly affected was what made the situation most arousing to Link. Maybe it was the camera. Or maybe it was just Rhett himself, sitting there watching Link nothing short of hungrily.  
  
This was the time to plant his ass in Rhett’s lap, so Link did. He sat with his legs on either side of Rhett, his own erection now noticeable and ready to align with Rhett’s own.  
  
“This isn’t how—” Link began to say through a soft chuckle when Rhett spoke at the same time, and after a short altercation of ‘sorry’s Link convinced Rhett to speak first.  
  
“Are you sure you want to?” Rhett asked, to bashful to specify what it is they were about to do.  
  
Link nodded eagerly and then took a moment to say, “Yeah. I want to. I want _you.”_   
  
Rhett nodded, and sounding like he could barely speak, said: “Yeah, I want you too. Real fuckin’ bad.”  
  
Rhett didn’t curse often because he knew that Link didn’t appreciate it, but this time Link appreciated it so much that he couldn’t do anything but press himself against Rhett and kiss him. Rhett returned the kiss eagerly at first but then pulled away abruptly and tried to keep Link at a distance to ask considerately, “What were you gonna say?”  
  
Link chuckled again and shook his head, he himself had already forgotten that he had something to say.  
  
“Oh, just that I never imagined we’d start our film-making careers like this,” Link said, making Rhett chuckle too.  
  
“Me neither,” Rhett said, leaning in to press his nose against Link’s neck. After a long, tranquil inhale, Rhett went on, “But I don’t mind.”  
  
“Nah,” Link breathed, closing his eyes and grinding down on Rhett slowly. “Me neither.”

 

Link ran his hands down Rhett’s arms to take his hands and place them on his ass, and Rhett obediently kept them there, squeezing handfuls at a time, his fingers teasing Link’s crack every once in a while. Link let himself be kissed for a long few minutes, but there was only one thing he could think of, something he itched to have. When Rhett kissed down Link’s chest to take one of Link’s nipples between his teeth, Link finally voiced that thought.  
  
“Rhett, fuck me,” Link said breathily, the hand he’d snuck down to the front of Rhett’s tightening around Rhett’s _still — really, it was overdue_ — clothed cock. Rhett let out an audible groan in response.  
  
“Yeah,” was all Rhett was seemingly able to muster in reply. He slipped two fingers in the waistband of Link’s boxers and tugged at them, and then kissed Link’s neck to compose himself before muttering, into that very neck: “Take these off.”  
  
Link took a breath to steady himself, able to admit that he was quite affected by all of this too. He got up slowly, trying to make himself look attractive. He almost tripped over himself, but Rhett didn’t seem to think Link looked unattractive, even with that.  
  
Recalling that the camera was on him, Link decided to arch his back just a little when he slid his underpants down his legs. When he did so and he looked up at Rhett, he could almost think that Rhett had forgotten there was a camera on them at all, or at least he wasn’t about to give it the time of day when he could look at Link. And really, Rhett stared at him so intently that it was almost disconcerting in how flattering it was.  
  
“I freakin’...” Rhett said, “Love you.”  
  
Link shook his head, unbearably happy. “Love ya too, buddy,” Link said with a smile and climbed back into his lap. The lube, which came in packets and which Link had left on the bed next to Rhett, now caught Link’s eye. He reached over to take it, just barely able to do so with Rhett not ready to leave his body, especially his lips, alone. When Link picked a packet up, he tore into eagerly and waited for Rhett to put his hand out.  
  
Rhett nodded and took the packet, squeezed the entirety of his contents over his awaiting fingers, and brought Link closer with the hand that was still on Link’s ass.

 

Link raised himself up a little so Rhett could slip his hand between his legs. With the pads of his wet fingers, Rhett teased Link’s entrance, brushing the tip of his middle finger along Link’s hole.  
  
Breathing a little heavily, his voice high-pitched and a little wan, Link said, “Didn’t get a condom, but there’s still time if ya want me to…”  
  
Rhett tilted his head up and kept his lips on the underside of Link’s chin as he mumbled, “No.”  
  
Link smiled and leaned down to kiss him, after which Rhett went on, sounding slightly snarky: “Fraid I didn’t get lucky with any perfect girls, so I’m still, ya know…”  
  
_They didn’t get lucky with you,_ Link wanted to say, but didn’t because he recognised something akin to jealousy in Rhett’s voice. And then he dialed back, as much as he could with his mind as cloudy with desire as it was, and said, “What?”  
  
“Sorry,” Rhett said, “I mean, I’m not bein’ funny, you can sleep with whoever you want—”  
  
“You think I, ah—” Link shook his head and spoke, but Rhett was still touching him down there and Link could barely breathe, “You think I slept with Jill?”

  
“Didn’t you?” Rhett asked, eyes too bright when he realised that Link didn’t sleep with her for Link not to think Rhett was feeling possessive.  
  
“No,” Link said, laughing a little. “Gosh, no, we’re just friends. You’re the only—”  
  
Link got cut off by Rhett’s middle finger, which Rhett had slid into his ass up to the first knuckle.  
  
_“Oh,_ gosh, Rhett,” Link went on, changing the topic and forgetting their previous topic entirely.  
  
“You like that?” Rhett asked huskily, seemingly having forgotten about Jill himself. Rhett’s free hand was on Link’s chest, his touch feather-light on Link’s nipples.  
  
All Link could do was nod, which Rhett took as a sign to press on. It wasn’t long before Link was writhing on top of Rhett, Rhett’s finger causing unimaginable sensations within him whenever he moved it.  
  
“Hurts?” Rhett asked worriedly, kissing the side of Link’s mouth comfortingly.  
  
“A little,” Link said, “Don’t you stop,” he warned before he would let Rhett even think of stopping.  
  
“Okay,” Rhett said softly and pulled him into another kiss. He pulled the finger out and added another one, and got to witness Link turn into a whimpering mess before him.  
  
“Fuck, Rhett, right there,” Link rambled, “Please, oh gosh, please—”  
  
“Yeah baby,” Rhett said, still as soft as ever, “Your ass is freakin’ perfect, I’m gonna fuck you so—”  
Link could conclude that Rhett was about to say he was going to fuck him real good even if Rhett never got to finish that sentence. Unable to take it any longer, Link slid off Rhett’s hand and his lap with a lot more grace than before even in his tousled state.  
  
When he got up, he skipped Rhett’s shirt and went straight for his jeans, which he tried to unbutton with shaky fingers. Rhett hissed through clenched teeth when Link undid the jeans and lifted his hips so that Link could pull them down along with his boxers. In his haste Link pulled them down just enough to take Rhett’s cock out. Link carded his fingers through the short, fair hair on Rhett’s belly and down to his cock, so that he could grasp it eagerly to give it a few well-deserved tugs.  
  
“Holy crap, Rhett,” Link whispered, working his hand up and down Rhett’s length slowly, “You’re hung like a fuckin’ horse.” Link had known this for a long time now, but he never thought he’d be able to praise Rhett so openly for how well-endowed he was.  
  
Rhett tangled a hand in the hair at the back of Link’s neck and pulled him in for a kiss. Link switched hands so that his free hand was closer to the remaining packet of lube still on the bed. He copped it, broke out of Rhett’s kiss just to pull it open with his teeth, and then got back to kissing Rhett.  
  
“You gonna be able to take it?” Rhett asked with a nod down at his cock. Spurred on into confidence by Link’s comment, there was no way Rhett could have been more attractive to Link in that moment.  
  
“Nn,” Link moaned, nodding with his eyes closed, a little weak in the knees. “Want all of it,” he said and kissed Rhett once more before he turned around and went to sit in Rhett’s lap. Rhett’s hands found his hips instantly and helped guide him into a good position, and with butterflies in his stomach and thoughts that he would be able to see what Rhett looked like while holding him like this later, from the tape, Link began to grind down on Rhett’s cock. He moved his hips in Rhett’s lap like he was dancing, able to swear that he could feel every one of the prominent veins on Rhett’s cock.  
  
Link thought he could start some sort of movement to get Rhett’s groans to become the national anthem. But for now the only thing to salute Rhett was Link’s throbbing cock, which was leaking without having been touched. Link felt Rhett’s own wet cock nestle into his crack and rolled his hips, arching his back as he pressed against it. Link was grinding on him slowly, with Rhett kneading his ass and kissing the back of his neck, when he felt the tip of Rhett’s cock dig into his perineum. Link stilled and raised himself up a little, and Rhett put his hand down between them before using it to guide the tip of his cock into Link’s hole.  
  
In silent agreement they moved together, Link sinking down on Rhett’s cock while Rhett held him, his fingers digging down into Link’s hips wonderfully.  
“Rhett, Rhett,” Link said urgently, feeling behind himself for Rhett’s arms, which he grasped firmly once he found them. He held himself up while Rhett held him steadily, both breathing shallowly.  
  
“You okay?” Rhett asked him evenly, sounding so composed when he worried that it took Link by surprise. Link didn’t have nearly as good of a hold on himself.  
  
“Fuck me,” Link breathed, and for a moment Rhett was still, but then he helped Link lower himself down as he fucked up into him slowly, and soon enough Rhett was balls deep inside him.  
  
“Link, you feel so fuckin’ good—” Rhett said, leaning away from Link a little so that he could fuck up into him. Link arched his back and spread his legs as far as he could, holding onto Rhett’s thighs which were between them. Leaning forward on his hands, Link raised his ass up in the air before sinking down on Rhett’s cock each time, and Rhett’s reverent hands helped him along the way.  
  
Rhett pulled himself back up so that he could wrap his arms around Link’s trim waist. Link leaned his head back and rested it against Rhett’s shoulder, enjoying the sensation of Rhett’s lips and beard on his neck as he bounced up on his cock. The faster they moved and the harder Rhett fucked him, the harder Rhett held him, pulling him impossibly close against his broad chest.  
  
Link came without Rhett laying a finger on his cock. He came in thick spurts, which reached all the way up to his chest.  
  
“Jesus Christ, Link—” was about all Rhett said, still fucking up into him rapidly, before he was coming too, and Link planted himself in Rhett’s lap, impaling himself onto Rhett as much as he could so that he could feel Rhett fill him up. Rhett still moved slightly, gyrating his hips in short strokes to fuck Link throughout his orgasm, before he relaxed and Link leaned against him, completely lax.  
  
Rhett was the first to speak. “Wow,” he breathed, leaning his lips against Link’s neck.  
  
Link nodded, breathing heavily. Trembling like a leaf in the wind, Link raised himself up and Rhett helped him move and sit down onto the bed next to him. Link winced a little when he sat down, but the pain was nothing compared to the intense pleasure that was still clouding his brain.  
  
Link threw himself back on the bed, nothing short of spent, while Rhett got up to turn the camera off. His dick still out, Rhett returned to the bed while holding his jeans up with his hand so that they don’t slip down, and when he made it to the bed Link sat up just to swat Rhett’s hand away and help stuff his cock back into his boxers before carefully zipping and buttoning his jeans up.  
  
Link spread his legs wide and Rhett stepped between them so that he could lean down and kiss him. Once satisfied with the kiss for the moment, Link threw himself back on the bed, spreading out in front of Rhett, looking up at him in a way he hoped would let Rhett know how much he still wanted him.  
  
“God, I — You’re so…” Rhett muttered and shook his head, “Mister perfect.” This made Link smile and roll his eyes, and Rhett climbed on top of him and dove in for another kiss. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is kind of it, only an epilogue to follow. guys they love each other its real 
> 
> thank you for reading and as always im dehydrated 4 reviews xx and massively grateful to those of u who leave them, you have my heart and my snatch


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (doesnt post in 3 months and then posts two chapters in two days) i guess im just soooo random
> 
> god. enjoy this you guys, and thanks for sticking it out! <3

_A few days later._   
  
Rhett came back from class for Link not to even notice him enter the room. Link was sitting at the foot of the bed, his face was turned up, eyes glued to the television. Rhett paused in the doorway with his hand on the doorknob, frozen when he heard the soft moans coming from the TV.   
Rhett closed the door quietly, took his shoes off by the door and tiptoed over to where Link was hunched forward, hugging his knees and practically biting his arm. Only one of Link’s hands was wrapped around the knees that he’d pulled up to his chest, though  — the other one was down between his thighs, and if one paid close attention, they could see it moving.   
  
Link was paying close attention to it and the TV, it seemed, because he didn’t notice Rhett until a sweet moment when Rhett got to lean down and startle him with a kiss to the side of his neck.   
  
“Oh how the tables have turned,” Rhett whispered, making Link shove at him annoyedly. And then, looking bashful, Link scrambled for the remote, attempting to turn the TV off. Rhett had already scooted up and settled behind Link, between him and the bed, and continued with the kisses he was pressing to Link’s neck. “Keep it on,” Rhett instructed, and with a small grumble Link obeyed, leaving the remote and settling back in Rhett’s arms.   
  
Rhett smiled when he felt Link relax against him and kept kissing him, raising his eyes to the screen to take in the image of Link riding him on the bed. Rhett felt his cock stirring in his jeans; they looked dang good together. Rhett would go as far as to say they looked better than the actors on the first sex-tape they watched together.   
  
“Your hands are so big,” Link said, eyes still on the screen. Rhett brought those hands to Link’s waist and rested his chin on Link’s shoulder, and Link snuggled back into him and went on, “And your arms. And your shoulders, dang it—”   
  
Rhett chuckled and pressed a kiss to Link’s shoulder, wrapping an arm around his middle and resting his free hand on Link’s navel, tucking the tips of his fingers under Link’s waistband.   
  
“You look incredible,” Rhett said, not knowing where to start with Link’s body. “What I said in that letter, man was I right.”   
  
Rhett could hear Link’s smile in his voice when he spoke, “Though you didn’t mean anything you put in that letter…”   
  
“You kiddin’ me?” Rhett asked, “Is it not obvious I love every part of you?”   
  
Link was quiet for a moment but pressed back against Rhett, pressed his ass against the spot where one could tell the footage they were watching and the compliments had made him excited.   
  
“I guess,” Link muttered.   
  
“I love your hands, and your butt, and your dick—” Rhett said, nuzzling the side of Link’s neck. Eyes on the on-screen Link, Rhett added, “Look how good you look riding me…”   
  
Link replied with a choked-off noise and put one of his hands on top of Rhett’s as if to stop it dipping further into his pants.   
  
“You like watching yourself get fucked?” Rhett asked, rendering Link speechless for a moment.   
  
“Yeah,” Link whispered later, after he moaned as he moved against Rhett. Then, startling Rhett, Link shook his head and leaned forward so that he could turn in Rhett’s arms and look at him.   
  
“We can’t — we gotta meet Jill in like, fifteen—”   
  
“Mm,” Rhett shut him up with a kiss. When they broke apart, Rhett asked Link in a whisper — unsure why he was whispering, maybe because Link still held his eyes closed like this was torture to him and Rhett was set on pacifying him, “How’d your exam go?”   
  
Link opened his eyes and squinted at Rhett. “Fine, I mean, I think I’m gonna do well, what does this have to do with—”   
  
Rhett kissed the side of his mouth to rudely interrupt him again, “Always modest. I think you did real good, and I think you deserve a reward.” Rhett moved his hand over the bulge in Link’s jeans, and even with all his complaining, Link pushed up into his hand.   
  
“We gotta go,” Link whined.   
  
Rhett smirked and leaned in to kiss him, “Think you’ll last longer than ten minutes with me sucking you off?”   
  
Link seemed to consider it. Well, Link choked on his own voice before stuttering out, “You—what?”   
  
“Get up,” Rhett instructed with a smile and got to see Link shiver. To the background noises of the two of them from a few days before, Link got up and sat on the edge of the bed, and Rhett turned and settled between his legs.   
  
Rubbing his hands up Link’s thighs, Rhett looked up at him with a smile, sitting back on his heels as he did so. Not wasting a lot of time, Rhett moved his hand to Link’s zipper. He popped the button open and pulled the zipper down, and then hastily he pulled the pants down too.   
  
“Excited?” Rhett teased, and Link responded with what looked like a barely achieved easy smile.   
  
“Eh,” Link attempted with a nonchalant half-shrug, but it came out as a breathy moan which ended up making Rhett laugh. Rhett couldn’t be so casual either, because Link’s hard cock was staring up at him, straining and leaking against Link’s briefs.   
  
Rhett suppressed a shudder. Gearing up to take Link’s cock into his mouth, he had to say that he was very excited getting to do so. He knew that he may not be the best at it yet, but he felt like doing it to Link until he was the best at it. Looking up at Link who was already trembling and blushing, Rhett couldn’t wait to take him into his mouth. So he only used his hand for a moment, brushing his fingers against the soft fabric and the wet patch where the head of Link’s cock was, but then he replaced his hand with his mouth at that very spot, parting his lips to envelop the head of Link’s cock through the fabric.   
  
Link inhaled sharply and Rhett flicked his eyes up immediately, looking up at Link who was panting as he leaned back on his hands. Link’s hips were shaking, the muscles of his thighs clenching as he undoubtedly tried not to thrust up. Rhett suddenly wanted to make sure Link didn’t want to thrust up. Rhett would give him everything, until there was nothing more for Link to ask.   
  
Rhett pulled Link’s briefs down with a flourish, like one might unveil a precious piece of art. Link’s cock sprung up just as proudly, and Rhett didn’t wait a moment before leaning in to press his tongue against it. Rhett gave Link’s cock tiny kitten-like licks first, half his mind on unbuttoning his own pants and getting his own cock into his hand, because he could feel it aching for any sort of contact. Once Rhett had bucked up into his own fist, he used his other hand to guide Link’s cock into his mouth, and sank down.   
  
“Rhett, fuck—” Link’s fingers struggled to find purchase on Rhett’s buzzed head of hair, and he ended up pleasantly scratching his blunt fingernails against Rhett’s scalp.   
  
Rhett moaned around him, trying to fit as much of Link’s cock as he could in his frankly small mouth. He made it almost all the way down on one of his first tries, or he just imagined the tip of his nose being tickled by Link’s pubic hair. In any case, as Rhett bobbed his head up and down, Link’s hand on his head was touching him more frantically, his fingers digging in harder before they clenched and Link just kept his hand there, still, voice coming in shuddering breaths as Rhett sucked him off.   
  
“Rhett, Rhett—” Link said urgently, and Rhett looked up at him, but didn’t pull off. He was about to, when Link kept repeating his name weakly but hectically, so much so that Rhett considered pulling off to ask him if he was okay.   
  
And then Link came, and the last thing Rhett wanted to do was pull off.   
  
“Rhett, baby,” Link was still babbling, as he filled Rhett’s mouth to the brim. Rhett pulled off slowly to swallow, never stopping looking at Link, who had finally opened his eyes and looked down at Rhett, those blues peeked out from between Link’s dark lashes to make Rhett shudder again. Watching Link look at him lovingly as he came down from his orgasm was definitely something Rhett could get used to.   
  
And Rhett had spilled into his own hand too, and yes it had felt amazing — but he felt himself flush when he realised that a moment ago he had attributed all the pleasure he felt to giving Link pleasure, barely even registering that he had jizzed too.   
  
“Still ten minutes till we gotta meet her,” Rhett said, feeling a little smug, retiring his hand from wiping his mouth to use it to zip Link’s pants up.   
  
When Rhett zipped him up, Link instantly leaned down and kissed him, so hard that he almost made him keel over. Rhett cracked up, too pleased not to laugh, and kissed Link as they leaned against each other and used that leverage to get up.   
  
Before Rhett leaned down to take the remote and turn the TV off — which now showed him walking toward the camera with his dick still out — Rhett added, “Looks like we won’t be getting much use of the tapes I got you.”   
  
Link seemed to take a moment to understand what Rhett was referring to before shrugging, smiling and saying, “I can just tape Friends over them. Or we can tape us.”   
  
“What you mean to say is we can tape boy- _friends_ over them,” Rhett concluded cleverly, very pleased with himself.   
  
“Yes,” Link said, rolling his eyes, “That’s exactly what I would have meant to say, were I as smart as you, Rhett.”   
  
Rhett grinned and kissed him — he didn’t care if Link wasn’t being serious, he’d take a compliment about his brains any day. But especially on a day when he also got complimented for his looks. And Link wasn’t done, apparently:   
  
“Gosh. Your mouth is a freakin’ wonder.”   


* * *

  
  
What a beautiful day it was. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the blossomed sakura trees were a nice contrast of soft pinks against the blue of the sky. Upon making it to the patio, Rhett and Link sat themselves in the corner, at a table under a big red parasol. Rhett had gone all out on his lunch — fried chicken, queso frito, fries with a load of ketchup and some mayo on the side plus a small tetra-pak of chocolate milk to go with his meal. Link had settled on some rice and peas with a side of sausage and bought a bottle of water to wash it down with, and though it looked a little bit healthier than what Rhett had picked out, Rhett knew that neither of these meals would have made Miri proud of them for eating them.   
  
Jill waltzed in with some fruit salad on her plate. Of course. Rhett figured he didn’t care about what he put in his body so long as it was yummy, but in that moment he did feel a little bit embarrassed for going with fried extravaganza as his lunch. And it was pure envy that sparked the embarrassment, it was the feeling that whatever he did, Jill always out-bested him, even if it was something as unimportant to Rhett as eating healthy. Why was Link with him, again?   
  
Like he knew what Rhett was thinking, Link leaned over and rested his head on Rhett’s shoulder for a moment. For the first time, they greeted Jill as an actual couple, and apparently Link wanted to make sure they looked like an actual couple, or maybe this was just how they were going to act now, since they were an actual couple. Either way, Rhett didn’t mind. He turned his head to the side so that he could press a tiny kiss to Link’s forehead, and he could see Jill smile widely as she watched them.   
  
“Hello boys,” she greeted, voice just short of a coo. She set her salad down on the table before sitting down herself, still smiling like Rhett and Link were the most adorable sight in the world — not that Rhett would fight her on that one — she asked, “How are you doing?”   
  
Link unstuck his head from Rhett’s shoulder which made Rhett feel like he was doing worse than a moment ago when Link was touching him, but still, Rhett had no hesitation when answering with: “Pretty darn good.”   
  
Rhett looked over at Link who was smiling and nodding before he replied, “Yeah, great, how are you?”   
  
Jill shook her head, “Not ready for third semester, but good, yeah.”   
  
Link nodded and asked her, “Where’s Jess, didn’t you say she was gonna come too?”   
  
Rhett had let Link lead the conversation already but now he sunk into an even deeper silence as he waited for Jill to reply. Rhett hadn’t really spoken to Jess since _that_ night, and he wasn’t sure what it would be like. But from what he gathered from Link, Jess was pretty cool, so he had high hopes for it going alright.   
  
Jill looked taken aback by Link’s question, but then shook her head and picked up her fork to start lightly stabbing her fruit salad. “Oh, um,” Jill took a bite before continuing, “I forgot her wallet at home.”   
  
It was Rhett who scrunched up his face confusedly, but Link who spoke what he was thinking, “You… forgot _her_ wallet?”   
  
Jill looked like she was half-guilty and like the half that wasn’t guilty was about to break into a mischievous smile, “She’ll need at least another ten minutes to find it.”   
  
Jill must have noticed their confused looks because she went on to elaborate, “I just hid it behind the mini-fridge so that I could talk to you guys about something.”   
  
Hearing that someone wanted to talk to him about something always made Rhett a little nervous, no matter who said it or what was about to be said.   
  
“Okay…?” Link said slowly, and Rhett started to get a little scared because the mischief was taking over Jill’s expression and when she spoke, for a moment he felt like he was drenched in cold sweat.   
  
“So, I heard that you guys hooked up with Jess,” she stated. It wasn’t that she sounded angry per se, but Rhett and Link still looked between themselves nervously, and if Link shared Rhett’s thoughts on the matter, it was going to be hard to decide which one will be the first to speak.   
  
Rhett bravely decided to take speaking upon himself. “Um, yeah.”   
  
Jill looked at them with narrowed eyes before leaning in, elbows on the table on either side of her plate of fruit salad. After a short beat, she asked:   
  
“How?”   


* * *

  
  
“At first I thought she was dissin’ us,” Rhett said later, when they’d come back to their room. They were lying on the bed, Rhett’s head in the crook of Link’s armpit, just lazing around under the sunlight that streamed through the effervescent gossamer curtains.   
  
Laughing, Rhett went on, “Like, how the heck did _you two_ hook up with _her?”_ he enunciated the awe in the last word so much that Link cracked up with a snort. Rhett looked up at him with a grin, watching him laugh silently.   
  
“I know,” Link said then, “Who knew she actually wanted advice from us?”   
  
Rhett flipped over so that he was lying on top of Link, his arms folded on top of Link’s chest. He didn’t try to hide his smug smile, and neither did Link, though Link’s smile looked more proud of them than it did narcissistically self-satisfied.   
  
Rhett cocked his head to the side in a half-shrug before saying, “Yeah, well. Gotta get used to people askin’ relationship advice from us…”   
  
“Yeah,” Link said, smile widening. Link rolling his eyes was a sweet gesture Rhett had gotten used to but which still made him smile every time he saw Link do it. Rhett didn’t know why Link being annoyed with him made him so happy, but it did. In a mock-impressed tone of voice, Link said: “Only took us a dozen years to get together!”   
  
Rhett smiled wider and stretched forward to press a kiss to Link’s mouth. “Yeah, and now we’re the resident homo relationship gurus.”   
  
Link squirmed beneath him and attempted to swat his shoulder. “You can’t say that word!” Link said through a scandalised, surprised laugh.   
  
Rhett quirked a brow and the corner of his lips and leaned in to nose along Link’s cheek. “Oh, can’t I?” he asked as he peppered kisses on Link’s face. “I really can’t?”   
  
Link shook his head and brought his hand to the back of Rhett’s neck to pull him into a kiss, and Rhett let him. In fact Rhett more than just let him, Rhett snuck his hands down and into the back pockets of Link’s jeans, gave his cute ass an obligatory squeeze, and pulled Link flush against him so that he could flip them over.   
When he did, Link raised himself up a little to smile before leaning down to give Rhett another kiss. Link licked against Rhett’s lips and Rhett parted them, using his own tongue to brush against Link’s. Fucking Link was incredible, there was no doubt about it, but there was something about the way Link made out with him that really made Rhett think that kissing Link was the best pastime in the world.   
  
After a few good minutes of Link making Rhett slowly lose his mind with his lips, Link pulled away with final short peck to his lips.   
  
“We goin’ to mass tonight?” Link asked, making Rhett furrow his brow.   
  
“What?”   
  
Link smiled a little and Rhett could tell that he was on the verge of rolling his eyes. It was adorable.   
  
“We kinda forgot about Easter, buddy,” Link said with a knowing tilt to his head, making Rhett scrunch not just his brow but his entire face up.   
  
“Don’t call me buddy,” he muttered, and it made Link laugh. Rhett was very serious, though. Which is why he was smiling himself.   
  
“I’m sorry,” Link muttered, leaning down so his lips were almost pressed against Rhett’s own, “Love.”   
  
“Better,” Rhett muttered, trying his hardest to sound troubled, which was proving to be hard with Link’s lips practically on his. Just out of spite, Rhett leaned up and kissed Link on the lips. Link didn’t seem to be bothered by it, damn him, just when Rhett was about to get some revenge to being shamelessly referred to as buddy—   
  
“You up for it?” Link muttered, “We don’t have to go.”   
  
Rhett shook his head a little, “No, we can go. You’re right.”   
  
Link smiled, “Okay.”   
  
His gaze softened in a way it always did when he was going to kiss Rhett, but Rhett stupidly spoke before Link could carry it out.   
  
“I feel so lazy, though,” Rhett said with a sigh, pouting a little. Thinking he’d be funny, Rhett went on, “And why would I need the body of Christ when I have—   
  
Link could apparently tell where Rhett was going with that, especially if he felt how Rhett had given his butt another squeeze.   
  
“No, no,” Link said, disentangling his hands from Rhett’s grasp and reaching over to do anything to shut Rhett up.   
  
“Your body—” Rhett continued, not about to be hushed.   
  
“Shu-shut up,” Link said, leaning over to press a hand on Rhett’s mouth. Link shook his head to lose the smile Rhett had put on his face and tilted his head up before mouthing, “Forgive him.”   
  
“Hey,” Rhett said, a little offended. When Link looked down at him confusedly, Rhett’s voice softened as he elaborated, “Nothin’ to forgive, ya know? This ain’t a sin.”   
  
And there it was, another eye-roll. Rhett smiled as Link said, “Usually I’d agree, but saying you’ll eat me out like the holy communion might actually ride the line.”   
  
Rhett laughed raucously, flipping them over in a second so Link was back under him. “Who said anything about eating you out?” Rhett said in a low voice, pressing a kiss to the edge of Link’s lips.   
  
“You,” Link said snarkily, completely uncreatively if you asked Rhett, and had no time to think of something _cleverer_ to say before Rhett slid his hand between Link’s thighs.   
  
“Mmm,” Rhett said into his neck, “Maybe I did. Guess I’ll have to make good on that now.”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so, here it is. It’s finally done. I wanna thank every single one of you for leaving a comment, a kudos, a bookmark, subscribing or just simply reading this fic. Though it was written for this one anon on tumblr (FDFA I miss you :( ) I gotta take a little time and shout out the people who really added to make this worth writing. Like, RileyRooin, RazleDazle, vannaorihara13 and Natas left so many and such Long and Detailed reviews which just. God. When I see those I pee my pants a little. Anyway, ugh, love you guys. Same with the people who tell me that they reread this fic like it’s an easy feat (Kmartenn and that one Anon, looking at you) or people who share their personal stories related to these fics and like how happy you are when I finally (fucking) update which is just… man. Love y’all…  
> Huge thanks also for the constant and consistent support @ mjolnear (you’re always so fucking nice), Gronsparris, Eliza, bluenailpolish, theUnpopularPoplar, missingparentheses, 21mythicalPilots, the_kingfisher, my girl Lauren of course, and I could go on, man, so many of you guys chipped in to let me know I’m appreciated and I can’t thank you enough. Thanks for putting up with me and I hope this was a good read for you all <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3


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